Case 7

Our firm represents a major software company which incurred losses of millions of dollars due to illegal distribution of a pirated PC programme which is used in various manufacturing industries (mainly in military design, aerospace and engineering). After years of investigation, Scotland Yard tracked down the brains behind this trans-European trafficking ring to Greece. Working closely with the police, the firm completed the difficult task of identifying and then having the leaders of this ring arrested by the authorities. The main distributor of the program in Greece, was sentenced by the Athens Felonies Court, judging the case at first instance, to a six year imprisonment penalty in addition to a pecuniary penalty of 20.000 Euros. The decision of the above Court constitutes a major breakthrough in Greek case law concerning copyright infringement, since, despite the fact that the defendant had a previous “clean” penal record, the Court did not, in the light of the particular dangerousness of the infringer, recognize this mitigating circumstance in favor of the defendant and did not grant a suspensive effect to his appeal; therefore the defendant was sent immediately to jail.