WASHINGTON, Feb. 19/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Software & knowledge Industry organization (SIIA), the principal trade organization for the software and digital substance industry, today released its 2007 Anti-Piracy Year in Review. The annual report chronicles SIIA’s anti-piracy efforts, and profiles the typical organization reported, the demographics of those who report software piracy and some of the notorious software piracy criminals imprisoned during the year. Notable achievements in 2007 included
the largest-ever auction site piracy settlement, the first settlement in SIIA’s Corporate subject matter Anti-Piracy Program and new education efforts to better protect consumers and help businesses ensure compliance.

“As we continued to aggressively pursue those who illegally sell or distribute pirated software and subject matter, we plus increased our educational outreach efforts in 2007,” said Keith Kupferschmid, SIIA SVP of Intellectual Property Policy and Enforcement. “By balancing enforcement with education, SIIA was able to crack down on illegal software sales and help consumers avoid purchasing pirated software. We plus made

strides in helping legal, public relations and other professionals effectively do their jobs within current copyright law.”

For nearly 20 years, SIIA’s Corporate Anti-Piracy program has been a national leader in combating software piracy in the workplace. In 2007, SIIA received 427 reports of alleged piracy — more than one and a half per business day. Of these, 17 percent were judged sufficiently dependable to pursue, illustrating SIIA’s conservative and fair approach to anti-piracy enforcement.

The largest share of software titles pirated fall in the productivity categories — word processing, office suites, report design, web design, etc. — the software used most often in business.

SIIA brought a high-profile corporate piracy case last year against Florida Benchmark, Inc., a mortgage survey company. After being served with the lawsuit, the firm cooperated with SIIA and conducted an audit which revealed they were using unlicensed software. Florida Benchmark eventually settled…

Orginal post by Top Tech News