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US Navy Under Fire In Mass Software Piracy Lawsuit (torrentfreak.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the permission-granted dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: In 2011 and 2012, the U.S. Navy began using BS Contact Geo, a 3D virtual reality application developed by German company Bitmanagement. The Navy reportedly agreed to purchase licenses for use on 38 computers, but things began to escalate. While Bitmanagement was hopeful that it could sell additional licenses to the Navy, the software vendor soon discovered the U.S. Government had already installed it on 100,000 computers without extra compensation. In a Federal Claims Court complaint filed by Bitmanagement two years ago, that figure later increased to hundreds of thousands of computers. Because of the alleged infringement, Bitmanagement demanded damages totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. In the months that followed both parties conducted discovery and a few days ago the software company filed a motion for partial summary judgment, asking the court to rule that the U.S. Government is liable for copyright infringement. According to the software company, it's clear that the U.S. Government crossed a line. In its defense, the U.S. Government had argued that it bought concurrent-use licenses, which permitted the software to be installed across the Navy network. However, Bitmanagement argues that it is impossible as the reseller that sold the software was only authorized to sell PC licenses. In addition, the software company points out that the word "concurrent" doesn't appear in the contracts, nor was there any mention of mass installations. The full motion brings up a wide range of other arguments as well which, according to Bitmanagement, make it clear that the U.S. Government is liable for copyright infringement.

5 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. Oh, no! by hey! · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hundreds of millions of dollars? Where will the DoD get that kind of money?

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    1. Re:Oh, no! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Wait - the copyright lobby have yet to peer-review the maths involved. This will be complex because the plaintiff is German and not American, but I believe the formula they apply is something like:

      sue_for_losses = (actual_losses + made_up_losses) * 1000

      Then, because it's a German company:

      america_first_weighting = 0.0001
      sue_for_losses = sue_for_losses * america_first_weighting

      Next up comes the political stuff:

      sue_for_losses = apply_secret_sauce_no_one_understands(sue_for_losses)

      By the time all that gets done, the German state will end up bailing out Bitmanagement so it can be pay the US government for misuse of their equipment.

  2. How does it taste? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    As an American I hope this will teach the Us government to stop being douchebags about copywrite infringement. And about most everything else too.

  3. why no, I didn't RTFA, why do you ask? by Thud457 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Piracy?
    In the Navy?

    That's a serious problem.
    YAAAARRRRR!

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    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  4. Obligatory Russian Reversal? by Clueless+Nick · · Score: 3, Funny

    In Soviet America, the Navy are the Pirates?

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