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U.S. government pays $50 million for piracy

Written by James Delahunty @ 29 Nov 2013 2:27 User comments (4)

U.S. government pays $50 million for piracy The U.S. Government has agreed to pay $50 million to a software company after it emerged that its software had been copied onto thousands of systems without licenses.
The software in question was provided by Texas-based Apptricity, which has provided logistics programs to the U.S. army since 2004. The company discovered in 2012 that its software had been copied onto thousands more systems than had been licensed for.

The software is used to track the movements of soldiers and key supplies. While the military could legally had the software used by around 500 users, Apptricity said there was an estimated additional 9,000 users beyond that.

During a presentation, a U.S. Army official had referred to the software as running on "thousands" of devices, which sparked Apptricity's curiosity.

The Texas firm sought $224 million but the U.S. has agreed to pay $50 million to settle the dispute.

"Apptricity is now incredibly energised to use the settlement resolution as a catalyst for aggressive investment in our team, our solutions and our untapped market opportunities," said Randy Lieberman, Apptricity's chief financial officer, reported the BBC News website.

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4 user comments

129.11.2013 16:52

LOL. Take that Uncle Sam!

229.11.2013 17:32

Hypocrisy at it's finest ladies and gentlemen. It's okay for US Government to pirate application they deem it needs for the betterment of National Security, but civilians do it, and oh they should rot in jail.

330.11.2013 13:24

bottomline: when piracy is in need, piracy is inevitable, indeed. ROFL LMFAO.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 30 Nov 2013 @ 1:25

43.12.2013 15:52

Great, my taxes are going toward THIS now!

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