Police raid local branch of advertising agency in search of pirated software

Last Wednesday police conducted a surprise search of the Warsaw-based branch of Upstairs/Young & Rubicam in an effort to determine whether or not the international advertising agency was using unlicensed copies of computer software, according to unofficial sources. As a result of the search, police confiscated roughly 160 computer programs, valued at approximately zl.500,000, thought to be illegal copies of software. The search allegedly took place after the authorities received a tip from one of the company’s former managers. „There has been a big misunderstanding. The matter is being looked into but, as far as I know, it has not been sent to the prosecutor's office,” said Wojciech Szpil, the company's CEO. According to research commissioned by Business Software Alliance (BSA), an organization representing the interests of software developers, including Microsoft, Adobe, Apple and Corel, about 60% of office and business computer programs used in Polish companies in 1999 were pirated copies of licensed computer software. Software companies claim that in 1999 lost revenues due to pirated software totaled roughly zl.165 million. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p.36) M. S.-C.