Novell Inc. said it has filed copyright and trademark infringement lawsuits and executed seizure orders against two California-based companies running bulletin board systems that allegedly sell pirated software.
The suits were filed in Federal District Court in Los Angeles and San Francisco against D&D Computing Inc., and Doug Luce who ran "The Wish List" bulletin board based in Redondo Beach; and Custom Software Services Inc., and Steven Marenkov who ran "The Red October" bulletin board based in Walnut Creek.Computer software, hardware, backup tapes and business records were seized from the two defendants. Novell said settlements are pending in both cases.
Novell charged that the defendants sold and distributed pirated Novell NetWare operating system software as well as hundreds of other programs from industry vendors, including Artisoft, Autodesk, Borland International, Corel Systems, Dynamic, IBM, Logitech, Lotus, Microsoft, Sierra Online, Software Publishing Corporation and WordPerfect.
"We applaud Novell's actions in shutting down these two pirate boards," said Ilene Rosenthal, director of litigation for the Software Publishing Association.
"The industry has not done enough in the past to fight software piracy that occurs through electronic bulletin boards . . . Novell's actions represent the first of many that the industry anticipates taking in the next few months."
Bulletin boards are electronic databases accessed via modem from computers. Both the Wish List and Red October bulletin boards are said to have charged a fee for downloading pirated software programs. They also allegedly encouraged uploading of licensed software to the bulletin board.
"Illicit bulletin boards prey upon unsuspecting users, luring them into illegal activity," said David Bradford, Novell senior vice president and general counsel.
"Shutting down such operations protects users from being involved in software piracy and helps to ensure that software purchased by customers is legitimate, uncorrupted, full-featured with necessary documentation."