The Business Software Alliance calls for higher fines and damages for software piracy in European countries. In contrast to the United States, the current fines are insufficient to deter.
That sets the BSA in an interview with Bloomberg. The anti-piracy organization, including Microsoft and Adobe in its ranks, argues that software companies last year, 13.5 billion dollar of damage they have suffered through piracy. The leader is France, with an alleged loss of income as a result of software piracy of 2.6 billion dollars. In Germany and Italy, would the amounts are 2.1 and 1.9 billion dollars.
The BSA further states that 35 percent of the in Europe commonly used software is illegal, while this figure in the United States at 20 percent. According to the BSA should software companies in the EU also often costly litigation which they have to prove that they revenues are lost as a result of piracy. In addition, the court sets the amount of the fine and any compensation.
The anti-piracy organisation calls, therefore, for higher fines and punitive damages. Also there would be the Us model of a legal minimum. A BSA lawyer refers to the situation in ‘a model country’ of Belgium, a country with a relatively low piraterijcijfer of 25 percent. This would be partly due to the high compensation that Belgian courts impose on alleged pirates. This would regularly be up to double the normal license for a particular software package.