Criminal Copyright Infringement Case Makes Headlines

Recently, a federal court made headlines when it found three technology company employees guilty of criminal copyright infringement. This case made headlines because copyright infringement is a civil matter.

The Acts Considered Criminal Copyright Infringement

The case involved three employees from Stamford Connecticut, previously of Constructure Technologies. Two of the employees, Michael Calabria and Joseph Keegan, were principals at the company, while Casey Silver was a project manager. The three were found guilty of installing unlicensed versions of software after using illegal programs that generated fake or unauthorized license keys. The unlicensed versions of the software were then sold or used by Constructure employees and customers.

Constructure Technologies is a technology company that provides information technology services to small and medium-sized companies. From 2011 to 2018, the company would charge fees for the software they provided but never actually pay the proper licensing fees. Instead, they opted to bypass such requirements by using illegal software they had found on the Internet to access or generate fake keys. No charges were filed against Constructure customers and employees that used the illegal software.

High Theft Crime and DMCA Violations 

There is no question that the three employees knowingly devised the plan as they were also shown to have tested the license cracking programs on a computer server in the basement of Constructure offices, on a file-sharing site controlled by Constructure, and distributed to be used remotely by unwitting Constructure employees. Ultimately, the three guilty Constructure employees pled guilty to committing high-tech theft, and Constructure, the company, was found guilty of a felony violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Key Takeaways on How Copyright Infringement Can Be Criminal 

Three technology company employees were found guilty of the rarer crime of criminal copyright infringement after it was proven that they had:

• Sold unlicensed copies of software for profit;

• Charged unwitting customers for licenses to the same software; and

• Used illegal key-generating software to bypass the software's license requirements.

For more information on copyright infringement, see our Intellectual Property Litigation and Industry Focused Legal Solutions pages.