Northern Irish firm faces legal proceedings after allegedly infringing copyright in its use of business software

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has continued its piracy crackdown by issuing legal proceedings against Northern Irish firm Kelman Limited.

Lisburn-based Kelman is alleged to have infringed copyright in its use of Microsoft, Adobe, Autodesk and Symantec software.

The BSA has responded by issuing legal proceedings against Kelman in the High Court of Northern Ireland. Kelman, which supplies components and services to the electricity industry, has two weeks to state whether it will contest the claim.

The BSA stressed it is taking no prisoners in its fight against piracy, with figures from market-watcher IDC indicating 27 per cent of business software in the UK and Ireland is illegal.

“In cases where we have reasonable evidence that copyright has been infringed we will take action to protect the rights of our members,” warned Sarah Coombes, director of legal affairs EMEA at the BSA.

“They make considerable financial investments in developing, distributing and supporting their software and the cost of the license reflects this. Piracy damages our members’ ability to develop new software innovations that deliver long-term business benefits - meaning everyone loses out from such activities.”

The BSA is also clamping down on auction sites, last week revealing it had prevented more than 36,000 illegal software products being sold through this channel in the first half of 2007.