Pay up or suffer the consequences, Federation warns

Anti-piracy body vows to make an example of those caught with illegal software, but who refuse to pay their dues

The Federation Against Software Theft (The Federation) is coming down hard on convicted pirates who fail to pay their fines.

Around 30 individuals who have been caught selling illegal software, are close to being named and shamed publicly by The Federation.

Its warnings follow the case of mobile phone engineer Derek Butterworth from Epping, who was fined £3,400 for illegally sharing software over peer to peer (P2P) networks. His story was featured in both the IT press and the local press after he failed to pay his fine.

John Lovelock, director general of The Federation, said: “We’ve always said that those who flout the law should be brought to right and naming and shaming seems to hit the right note. The decision to bring this case into the public eye wasn’t instant. Mr Butterworth and others like him had initially been approached and simply asked to pay a license fee for the software, a small contribution towards our costs and sign a declaration they would not do it again. It was only when he ignored this twice that we decided to take matters further. There are another 30 or so people who have continued to ignore our repeated offers to settle and so these too may now face the same fate as Butterworth.”

Lovelock continued: “Mr Butterworth was traced as a result of The Federation’s online surveillance operation of peer to peer networks, Operation Tracker and he’s not the only one. We hope that by making an example of one case others will see the benefit of paying up immediately. Now it’s no longer a case of saving yourself thousands of pounds, it’s about saving face as well.”