SL.tv is delighted to report on this ground-breaking verdict from a Chinese court.  Last Thursday a district court in China ruled that Dazhong Insurance must pay Microsoft $317,900 in compensation for use of pirated software.

This is the first time Microsoft has pursued a Chinese corporate for software piracy and its the largest amount ever awarded by a Chinese Court in a software piracy case.

Microsoft claimed that Dazhong were using at least 450 copies of 9 different programs including Windows, Office and a range of database programs. Dazhong had repeatedly ignored communications from Microsoft over a period of 18 months in connection with pirated software before Microsoft brought the case to court.

The court awarded Microsoft close to the full amount of compensation which they had sued for.

Though it’s probably premature to view this as an indication that China is finally taking its software piracy problem seriously SL.tv feels that this judgement has to represent progress for a country where both government and software users have traditionally had a notoriously lax attitude to software piracy.

We join with Microsoft in hoping that this judgement sends a strong warning message to other Chinese corporates who might be considering saving a yen by deploying pirated software.

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