ELK GROVE, Calif. — While many automotive repair shop owners know that copying and/or distributing copyrighted software illegally is considered piracy, what they may not be aware of is that even possession of software that has been illegally copied is piracy. To protect their customers and product integrity, ALLDATA LLC is aggressively pursuing civil and criminal action against all software pirates. “ALLDATA has a zero tolerance policy on software piracy,” says Susan Slish, product security program manager, ALLDATA. “In addition to continually improving our software's internal security, we investigate all leads regarding the unlicensed distribution of our products. We want criminals to know that they will be caught and prosecuted.” Recently, two individuals, Andy T. Tran and Vu P. Nguyen from Business Computer Solutions in Long Beach, Calif., were charged with copyright infringement. They were sentenced to five years' felony probation, restitution to be paid to ALLDATA over a 5-year period and 60 days of community service. According to the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the software industry annually loses about $12 billion world wide from piracy, $2 billion in North America alone. To combat this problem, several federal agencies, such as the U.S. Copyright Office, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Senate Judiciary Committee and the U.S. Department of Justice, maintain software piracy divisions. Their sole purpose is to track down and prosecute software pirates and cyber criminals, including those who use unlicensed software, either ignorantly or deliberately. Using pirated software can also be risky. Aside from the legal consequences related to pirated software, users also forfeit many practical benefits of authentic software. Those who use pirated software: • Increase the chances that the software will not function correctly or will fail completely. • Forfeit access to customer support, upgrades, technical documentation, training and bug fixes. • Have no warranty protection. • Increase their risk of exposure to a debilitating virus that can destroy valuable data. • May find that the software is actually an outdated version, a beta (test) version, or a nonfunctioning copy. • Are subject to significant fines for copyright infringement. • Risk potential negative publicity resulting in loss of business. Don't be fooled. If the price of the software is too good to be true, the chances are it is illegal or unlicensed. In addition, pirated software packaging can look very similar to the genuine product. | 
