Intellectual property and Cracks

[AnunRhama]

Hi, I have a bit of an interesting question about the cracked software. Recently, there was a report in the news about a gaming company (they produce and sell games) from my city that had installed cracked software on more than 280 computers and supposedly damaged Microsoft and Autodesk for around a million dollars (50:50 I guess).

So I was wondering what is the penalty for something like that, if anybody knows? It also got me thinking about creating something on the cracked software... any kind of media for instance, whether it's a film, music, image or whatever. What happens with that product, especially if it finds it's way on the internet? Cause... chances are, a lot of people had an opportunity to download and perhaps use a cracked version of some software. If they created something on it, do they have to pay for that as well, some extra fee (especially if they made money with it, for example like this company)? Or if you get caught using illegal software you just have to pay for the licensing of it?

So, I was wondering if anyone has some more knowledge on stuff like this?

 

[TerryLaze]

All depends on the laws of your country,and international laws if and when they apply,generally it's a crime and you get to curt and either have to pay a fine or even get jail time depending on how severe the crime was.
Thing is it's very hard for an american company to sue someone in an other country and if this country itself doesn't fight software piracy much than nothing happens.