US Navy claims its piracy was approved by its victim

All at sea

The US Navy, which pirated more than 558,000 copies of some virtual reality software without paying the German software maker for it, claims that it did so with the consent of the software producer.

This is news for Bitmanagement Software which is suing the US Navy for stealing its 3D virtual reality software on a “massive scale” since 2013.

The company says it agreed to license BS Contact Geo on just 38 machines “for the purposes of testing, trial runs, and integration into Navy systems.” Bitmanagement conceded that it removed the “control mechanism that tracked and limited the use of the software” but was a little spooked when the US Navy rolled out 558,000 copies. It is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

The government said that it the Navy installed BS Contact Geo onto hundreds of thousands of computers within its network starting on or about August 2013. However, it denies that BS Contact Geo was installed on the Navy’s networked computers without Bitmanagement’s knowledge or authorisation.

In fact, Bitmanagement modified BS Contact Geo for allowing such installation and that Bitmanagement received multiple updates regarding the status of this installation, the government said.

Basically, the Navy claims it could use the software on hundreds of thousands of computers with licenses for 38 machines. After all, isn’t that what every business does?

The software maker, said it was under the impression that the Navy would pay hundreds of thousands of licenses, said its programme enables interactive collaboration with “high-quality” graphics that, for example, allows its users to visualise a “military base.”