CID Anti-Piracy Unit commences crackdown

The Anti-Piracy and Counterfeit Unit, recently established at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Sri Lanka Police carried out a series of raids on an international group of companies suspected of infringing the intellectual property rights of the Business Software Alliance members.

Among the pirated and unlicensed software found included those from Adobe, Autodesk and Microsoft. The use of pirated and unlicensed software in businesses is a criminal offence under the Intellectual Property Law, No.36 of 2003.

The inspection and identification of suspected pirated software took over eight hours.

Thereafter, the police seized over 30 computers, installed with suspected pirated business software valued at Rs 7,500,000 all of which were taken into police custody for further inspection and to be produced in Court.

CID Director Wijaya Amarasinghe said "The laws of Sri Lanka must be respected.

We are focusing on taking action against companies using pirated and unlicensed software in their business as they are not only infringing upon the rights of copyright owners, but may be indirectly rewarding illegal vendors or even organized crime networks.

Companies trying to cut costs may be tempted to use pirated software and disregard the law, but piracy is theft and is actionable by law. The software industry and other creative sectors need protection against this kind of crimes as we are responsible for creating a safe environment where legitimate businesses, innovation and original ideas can flourish".