BSA/The Software Alliance (BSA) has welcomed a judgement by the Magistrates’ Court  against the owner of a retail outlet who in December 2012 was caught selling computer systems which were loaded with unlicensed computer software products.

The accused had initially pleaded not guilty but, after changing to a guilty plea was handed a conditional discharge with an operative period of three years and fined €7,000. The court also ordered the confiscation and destruction of all of the media and apparatus which contained the infringing computer software.

“We are very pleased with this court sentence because it sends out a strong and clear message to those who think they can operate above the law and sell counterfeit or pirated products,” said Antoine Camilleri, legal counsel to BSA.

“This court judgement is also an important milestone because there have been other similar cases in the past, in which the accused were treated rather lightly. The law needs to be firm with these individuals because in so doing, it would also be protecting the end consumer.” 

The BSA said that every year, software piracy costs billions in time and money for both consumers and businesses. Although some computer users may actively seek pirated software in hopes of saving money, the chances of infection by unexpected malware in pirated software are one in three for consumers and three in 10 for businesses, according to a study commissioned earlier this year by Microsoft and conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC).

As a result of these infections, the research shows that consumers will spend 1.5 billion hours and $22 billion identifying, repairing and recovering from the impact of malware, while global enterprises will spend $114 billion to deal with the impact of a malware-induced cyber-attack.