Mar 18, 2007 at 12:09 PM
New Delhi/Mumbai: The Delhi Police claim to have busted one of the biggest software piracy rings by cracking down on three fraudsters for a scam to the tune of Rs 110 lakh.
Police arrested the trio for stealing the source code from Greek software company, Wing System Ltd.
The software, developed by Wing System, was being used to create embroidery designs by garment export companies across the world.
The software was usually sold by the company for over Rs two lakh.
However, the pirated version is available for anywhere between Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000. The source code theft has resulted in a loss of over $11 million (Rs 110 lakh) to the company.
"They had loaded it onto the computer and were selling the pirated version of the software by transfering it to a CD. They then gave it to who ever came to their shop for say Rs 2000 or Rs 2,500. Besides this, they were also creating patters," says Assistant Commissioner of Police with the Economic Offences Wing, S D Mishra.
The licensed version of the software is sold on a CD along with a Dongle, a hardware device that is inserted in the USB port of the computer to run the software.
The accused have been arrested for violating the Copyright and Information Technology Act.
"When we went into the market and gave the demonstration of the software and told them this was a new product, people told us they were already using this product," says Senior Manager with Wing CAD India, Sumeet Grover.
The main accused in the scam is still on the run. Police are now investigating how he managed to get his hands on the source code.
Source
