Copyright Infringement Isn’t Ezy

The court recently awarded a software company almost $600,000 in a case involving the illegal copying of its software, sending a clear message to copyright infringers.

Ezy Loans Pty Ltd is a company that sells and rents second-hand computers. Over several years the company, under the control of its director, copied Microsoft software onto the computers without a licence from Microsoft. The director had also acted in this manner as a sole trader. Microsoft took them both to task in the recent case of Microsoft Corporation and others v Ezy Loans Pty Ltd and Another [2004] FCA 1135.

The court found Ezy Loans and its director guilty of infringing Microsoft’s copyright, of unauthorised use of Microsoft’s trade mark and of misleading and deceptive conduct under the Trade Practices Act.