This news comes as a warning for all establishments and offices who are using pirated software. Microsoft has become aggressive its fight against piracy. A woman in Spain has been sentenced to 6 months of imprisonment along with a hefty fine of $4,400 for using pirated copies of windows Operating System in her establishment. An important point to note here, that the woman was not using it for her personal use only. Rather, she used a number of copies of pirated Windows operating System for official use in her company.
The company is located in Madrid. As per reports, the company offered international phone calls. This is highly unethical, as we know pirated operating systems are highly vulnerable to virus attacks and other security threats. This, it can be assumed that user data were left in high risk of security attacks. The incident took place, way back in 2017. The legal procedures that followed continued the next for 4 years. The lady had to appear in the court several times during the course of the trial. Finally, the verdict is out and the lady has been sentenced to 6 month of imprisonment along with a compensation fine of $4,400. In addition to this, the woman has been asked to pay the price of two licenses of Microsoft Windows.
For the first time in Spain, a person has been put behind the bars for using pirated software copies. It is now a big question mark as what step will be taken against users, who use pirated copies q software for personal use. Pirated software or operating system copies are highly dangerous, because they cannot be updated, unlike licensed copies. So, if there is a security flaw or loophole in that particular version of the operating system, then it would be enough to extract all user data and confidential information. If the pirated copy is used for large scale use, then the damage with be much more than that used for personal purpose.
What do you think of the pusrishment? Is it too harsh or justified with respect to the crime committed?
