Software Piracy? Ask the US Navy

[Deleted]

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07...tware_pirates/
Court filing: https://regmedia.co.uk/2016/07/19/bi...ementvnavy.pdf

A German software developer has accused the United States Navy of illegally copying $596m worth of its product.

Bitmanagement Software GmbH claims that the Navy has copied "hundreds of thousands" of copies of its 3D modeling and tracking software BS Contact Geo without paying.

They have filed suit [PDF] in the US Court of Federal Claims asking for damages of "not less than $596,308,103."

Designed for 3D meetings, training, and collaboration, Bitmanagement touts the BS Geo software "uniquely enables interactive collaboration among multiple users in one virtual environment simultaneously, with high-quality graphics that appear crisp and sharp even on simple computers."

According to Bitmanagement's claim, it first began working with the Navy on a pilot program in 2011 that called for 38 copies of the software to be installed.

Following the trial program, the software developer claims that it was led to believe the Navy was going to expand the use of BS Geo by purchasing additional licenses for a large-scale deployment in 2013. During that time, Bitmanagement says it disabled the copy-protection software on BS Geo at the Navy's request.

Between 2013 and 2015, while negotiations for the licenses were going on, Bitmanagement claims the Navy proceeded to distribute and reinstall BS Contact Geo on at least 558,466 machines, despite only having paid for the initial 38 licenses.

"The government knew or should have known that it was required to obtain a license for copying Bitmanagment software onto each of the devices that had Bitmanagement software installed," the complaint charges.

"The government nonetheless failed to obtain such licenses."

Bitmanagement reckons that, at a per-copy price of $1,067.76 (€800), the Navy owes it roughly $596m for its use of the software. It is suing the US government for multiple violations of US copyright law.

[Independent voter]

We'll put up our pirating of "BS Contact Geo" against your pirating of "Game of Thrones".

[Mistame]

Software licenses are such a fucking scam.

While it's certainly getting worse, intellectual property is a thing. If this is true, shame on them.

[Bollocks]

This is why we need ISDS, if they were none I don't see this company ever having a chance at winning this case.

[Mistame]

Don't misunderstand me. I do not condone this if it is true.

No worries, I didn't figure you did.

[Deleted]

The thing is that no one will do anything about it. US Navy is the major force in the known world currently. And that's power. You beta cucks need to understand how world works.

[Calfredd]

The thing is that no one will do anything about it. US Navy is the major force in the known world currently. And that's power. You beta cucks need to understand how world works.

Was that last sentence really necessary?

[Deleted]

Was that last sentence really necessary?

Oh it was. Some people don't realise how world works.

[Deleted]

They should pay.

[Stacyrect]

Whomever gave the ok for people to install the software should face the same penalties torrent site owners get when they get picked up imo. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

[primalmatter]

Can you sue for pirating in international waters?

[Christan]

Can you sue for pirating in international waters?

umm... not sure about other countries but the US does reserve the right to also arrest and detain people for crimes committed outside of their own borders, even if said crime is legal in the country of the offense, that law was brought about to make able to put pedo's in some gen pop somewhere, where there are hopefully a lot of broomsticks.

as far as the OP, it's indeed a shame and i am hoping germany actually wins this suit, though i believe they would have to prove the US is using the software on that many machines (instead of say...having it installed on 33 machines, and then using a secure network have it loaded into the ram of other machines, you can do this with wow, share network resources etc.. with a good connection it works okay, changing zones / loading new models does take longer, but i bet the navy's bandwidth is amazing)

[Blueobelisk]

Can you sue for pirating in international waters?

Lol that was funny.

As a taxpayer, kinda don't mind. It is hypocritical though.

[Mihalik]

Can you sue for pirating in international waters?

Considering the nature of the software, I don't think most of the infringement would have happened aboard of Navy vessels in international waters, but mostly in the administration and back office areas of the Navy.

But regardless that is a largely moot point. Military vessels are considered Sovereign territories of the nations operating them. Which means US law (and international law to a degree) applies to them.

- - - Updated - - -

Lol that was funny.

As a taxpayer, kinda don't mind. It is hypocritical though.

To be frank, at a fraction of that cost the Navy could have developed its own software.

[Deleted]

This is why we need ISDS, if they were none I don't see this company ever having a chance at winning this case.

Huh? They are suing in the US Federal Court of Claims in Washington DC.

It also has nothing to do with ISDS because that concerns domestic government policy changes that impact future expected profits against foreign multinationals.

The plaintiff is all but guaranteed to win a claim (award may be different from expected) given the paper trail generated by the US government itself. For example, it would not have known about all the extra installations without being told of them by the US Navy, because the company had been requested to disable their own copy protection...

[announced]

isnt the military pretty much immune to civil lawsuits? or something like that from what i hear?
either way I dont see how the Germans are going to win, the US navy is a superpower and suing them wont do anything.

[Deleted]

isnt the military pretty much immune to civil lawsuits? or something like that from what i hear?
either way I dont see how the Germans are going to win, the US navy is a superpower and suing them wont do anything.

You can sue/claim against any government in their own country, certainly any Western country, for breach of contract already. That is what is happening.

[Deleted]

"Pirate? Nay. Privateer. On a sanctioned mission, under the authority and protection of the Crown."

[Blade Wolf]

Goverment goes on a witch hunt against piracy with KAT, US Navy pirates software

[Citizen T]

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07...tware_pirates/
Court filing: https://regmedia.co.uk/2016/07/19/bi...ementvnavy.pdf

Let's see. $596,308,103 at $1067.76 per computer would be roughly 558,000 computers. The total manpower of the US Navy is about 325,000 with approximately another 200,000 civilian employees. This means that they are charging for more licenses than there are people (much less computers) that can use them. It's been a LOT of years since I was in the Navy but on my submarine at the time, we had a grand total of 3 laptops for a 150 man crew. I'm sure that is much higher now but I'm also quite sure it's unlikely to be a higher ratio than 1 computer per 5 people. In my humble (ok.. not so humble) opinion, the absolute highest number of licenses being used would be something in the neighborhood of 200K and even this seems ridiculously high as I doubt every computer in the Navy would require this software.