US Navy To Pay Up $154K After Allegations Of Being Pirates Of 3D Software

Yo-ho, yo-ho, the US Navy have been accused of being pirates and are now made to pay up a treasure chest’s worth of damages. The maritime service branch has been ordered by the US Federal Court of Claims to compensate Bitmanagement Software GmbH US$154,400—which, to put things into perspective, is a wee dent compared to the nearly US$600 million demanded by the company back in 2016.

Bitmanagement, a German firm that creates 3D visualization tools, claimed that it first struck a partnership with the US Navy to roll out its BS Contact Geo pilot program in 2011. The deal was apparently to install 38 copies of the 3D virtual reality software, ahead of a potential large-scale deployment in 2013 which would require additional licensing.

However, the Navy purportedly passed the 38 copies around and downloaded the software onto at least 558,466 machines between 2013 and 2015, according to Bitmanagement’s initial complaint. The software developer added that there could be even more instances of the program being used without its consent, but it wasn’t able to tell as it had disabled its duplication tracker in 2014.

Bitmanagement sued the Navy for “willful copyright infringement,” asking for an eye-watering US$596.3 million because the Navy installed the program onto “hundreds of thousands” of computers “without Bitmanagement’s advance knowledge or consent,” as per its filing in 2016.

The firm elaborated that after the Navy was threatened with legal action, the latter uninstalled BS Contact Geo from all its machines but “reinstalled the software on 34 seats, for inventory purposes.”

“The government knew or should have known that it was required to obtain a license for copying Bitmanagement software onto each of the devices that had Bitmanagement software installed,” Bitmanagement wrote, highlighting the federal wing’s responsibility in complying with the law. “The government nonetheless failed to obtain such licenses.”

The Navy argued that it was compliant with the license terms, which apparently allowed it to make additional copies of the software without owing the company any more fees. “Defendant denies that the licenses were limited to installation of BS Contact Geo on a total of 38 Navy personal computers,” it wrote. “Defendant further avers that the Navy procured concurrent-use network-installation licenses of BS Contact Geo.”

Bitmanagement alleged that the cost to license each copy was US$1,067.76, and thus the almost US$600 million sum was substantiated. However, David Kennedy, the Navy’s expert witness and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) for Pricewaterhouse Cooper, estimated that each copy was worth just US$200.

The Court of Federal Claims has found the Navy’s recommended amount to be more realistic, and has now ordered it to pay Bitmanagement US$154,400, which takes into account an admittance by the Navy that it “may have” purchased 100 simultaneous-use licenses when negotiations with Bitmanagement fell through.

The Navy may also have to fork out “delayed compensation,” which will be advised at a later date.

In DesignTAXI’s investigation, we found that Germany has persistently shown up as a sort-of headquarters for copyright infringement lawsuits. We also spoke to legal experts to learn how you can avoid falling into a copyright trap, whether you’re a creator or everyday user.

[via Gizmodo, TechSpot, The Register, cover illustration 18643529 © Simone Gatterwe | Dreamstime.com]