Adobe Systems has won a civil suit against Sergey Mikirtumov, who has been ordered to pay the company 7,440,000 rubles (approximately $262,000) for selling and distributing pirated software. The damages award is the largest to be granted to Adobe in Russia, said Natalya Kalinina, a legal assistant for the firm that represented Adobe in the case.
The period for appealing the judgment, delivered February 18, 2011, has expired, thus the judgment is absolute, says an Adobe representative.
According to Adobe, the offense was discovered in October 2008, when police confiscated from Mr. Mikirtumov — who had already been convicted of trafficking in counterfeit software — more than 9,000 pirated CDs, including illegal copies of Adobe software, which were valued at 3.72 million rubles (approximately $130,900).
The court ascertained that Mr. Mikirtumov was not only selling counterfeit content but was also distributing pirated products through a company that he co-founded.
Adobe demanded compensation of double the value of the seized copies of the programs.
By Russian law, the plaintiff is entitled to claim up to 50 million rubles ($1.76 million) for each case of copyright violation, said Oleg Yashin, representative of the anti-piracy association “Russian Shield.” According to Yashin, recovering monetary compensation in such cases is difficult in practice and does little to deter piracy. More effective means of combating piracy are settling disputes out of court and prosecuting offenders.
Source: Vedomosti
