Oriental Trading Company, an Omaha, NE-based cataloger, has agreed to pay a software-piracy watchdog group $525,000 for using unlicensed copies of software in its business. Oriental also agreed to delete the unlicensed copies, buy replacements and strengthen its software-management policies.
Bob Kruger, vice president of enforcement for the Business Software Alliance, Washington, DC, said the nonprofit group became aware of Oriental Trading’s infractions through a call to its anti-piracy hotline, 1-888-NOPIRACY. Oriental Trading, which sells toys, novelties and giftware, conducted its own investigation and concluded it had more copies of software than it had licenses for.
“The company cooperated fully with our investigation,” Kruger said. “They’re a very good corporate citizen.”
Kruger said the software was not DM-specific but everyday desktop programs by Microsoft and Symantec for spreadsheet, word-processing and database applications.
“Establishing and maintaining a compliant environment is very important to us,” Joe Schwaller, Oriental Trading’s information-technology director, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, rapid growth and expanded use of new client server technology made this process a challenge.”
The Business Software Alliance has collected more than $35 million over the past six years from U.S. companies that have been caught with illegally copied software.
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