It’s official — now EVERYONE is doing it. U.S. government illegally pirates software, has to pay $50m fine

While the U.S. government has made numerous attempts at curbing online piracy (see SOPA, PIPA, et al), it appears as though it needs to refocus its efforts on better monitoring its own internal departments and how they go about attaining software.

You see, the government just had to pay a $50m fine after it was found to have pirated “thousands” of copies of military software. 

The company from whom the software was stolen is “Apptricity,” a Texas-based logistics firm that’s been working with the U.S. Army for nearly a decade. Basically, Apptricity's program allows the military to track the movements of soldiers and key supplies.

During a 2012 audit, the company discovered that the software licensed to the U.S. government was installed on many more machines than was contractually stated.

Specifically, the contract states that the software can be used by up to 500 named users.

Apptricity estimated that at the time it was reviewing the program, there was somewhere around 9,000 users accessing the program.

Apptricity originally sued for $224 million to cover costs. While the $50 million settlement falls way short of that request, Apptricity said in a statement that the money would be spent on expanding the company.

“Apptricity is now incredibly energized 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.

Story via bbc.co.uk