US military Nabbed using pirated software, settles for $50 mln

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While the Obama Administration was trying to do its best in fighting against intellectual property theft - including the Joint Strategic Plan run by Vice President Joe Biden that aims to curb copyright infringement - the US Army is concurrently using pirated Apptricity corporation software that manages troop and supply transfers.

The company filed a lawsuit against the government, accusing the US military of willful copyright infringement. The Obama Administration has agreed to pay Apptricity $50 million for pirating the company’s logistics software the US Army implicated beyond contracted parameters.

The Administration settled with the company, as it has been recently announced, agreeing to pay $50 million, though Apptricity originally demanded over four times that amount to cover unpaid licenses.

“The Army has used Apptricity’s integrated transportation logistics and asset management software across the Middle East and other theaters of operation. The Army has also used the software to coordinate emergency management initiatives, including efforts following the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti,” the company representatives explained.

The improper installation of unlicensed copied software was discovered by accident, when during Strategic Capabilities Planning 2009 the US Army Program Director said that thousands of devices had Apptricity software. Ultimately, 93 servers and over 9,000 standalone devices of the Army had the unlicensed software.

“The Government knew or should have known that it was required to obtain a license for copying Apptricity software onto each of the servers and devices,” the company told the court, asking for at least $224,543,420.80 to cover the damages, equal to what it lost in licensing fees.

The government had no choice but to admit the illegal use and start settling negotiations with Apptricity.

“After Alternative Dispute Resolution proceedings, the parties agreed to settle for $50 million. The figure represents a fraction of the software’s negotiated contract value that provides a material quantity of server and device licenses for ongoing and future Department of Defense usage,”Apptricity announced.

Apptricity expects to continue doing business with the US military despite the recent inconveniences.