MikroBitti 6-7/1995, p. 19

Tough Sentences for Illegal Programs
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The worldwide anti-piracy association, BSA, has started an enhanced campaig in Finland against the use of copied software. Finnish companies have been sentenced to fines of hundreds of thousands of marks and jail because of illegal copies. BSA's European lawyer Amy Glickman says that BSA will keep filing criminal reports until the percentage of illegal software in the Finnish market drops to zero. According to the current estimate, more than 60% of programs used in Finland are pirate copies.

The first company that BSA sued in Finland was a Helsinki-based design agency. The owners received 60-day jail sentences because the company used illegal versions of AutoDesk, Microsoft, Novell and WordPerfect applications.

The next case followed in Tampere, where the district court sentenced a computer store for distributing pirate copies of operating systems with the machines. The culprits received suspended six-month jail sentences and had to pay more than 600 000 marks in compensation.

According to BSA, software piracy is a vast problem in Europe and, on average, 59% of sofware is illegal. However, authorities have started taking software piracy increasingly seriously, as it hurts employment and tax revenue. Courts have started considering giving jail sentences to companies that copy software illegally to run their business.