Navy
US Navy Accused Of Piracy... Of Software
The United States Navy is being sued for $600 million for allegedly using pirated software.
Software company Bitmanagement Software GmbH is bringing the suit over what it says is a breach of the licence agreement it set up with the Navy, according to Extreme Tech.
The company produces visualisation software using geographic data, a natural fit with any organisation (like the military) which uses flight and other terrain simulators.
The disagreement reportedly came about after Bitmanagement provided the Navy with 38 PC licenses so that its software could be tested.
This was meant to help with "testing, trial runs, and integration into Navy systems" but the Navy asked Bitmanagement to unlock the DRM (Digital Rights Management) block on the software so that they could test it more fully.
However, the company alleges that the Navy then went on to install BS Contact Geo, the software package it had given to them, hundreds of thousands of times without their consent, and without compensating them for it.
In addition, the company claims that its "Flexwrap" software, embedded in BS Contact Geo to track its distribution, was also disabled in 2014.
Since then, it's proposed a $1,067.76 per-seat licence fee for the software, that it says the Navy has continuously ignored. The Navy have not commented on the allegations.
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