Legal history has been made in Russia with the first prosecution of a foreign company for the use of illegal software according to a press release from the Department of Economic Security (DEB).

The DEB statement does not name the company but refers to it as being ‘engaged in the production of electronic and household appliances’. Further sources report this to be the Russian division of LG Electronics.

A search of the premises by officials from the agency found more than 60 employees using unlicensed copies of well-known software in the course of their business, reported to be copies of Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Acrobat, amongst others. To help with their enquiries, officers seized 44 computers and 17 laptops containing the pirated software.

A representative of LG issued a statement saying that they will co-operate with the authorities although they insist that the company has a strict adherence policy to intellectual property law and Russian legislation.

The company is being charged under Part 3, 146 of the Criminal Code (violation of copyright and related rights) which can mean up to six years in prison and a fine of up to 500,000 rubles (US$16,285).

It is estimated that losses from misuse of copyright amount to 2 million rubles (US$0.65 million).