Estonian Software Pirate Sentenced to Prison

Apr 27 2011 - 12:00

Estonian first instance court, the Harju County Court, has sentenced Estonian citizen Ott Speek to one year and three months in prison for copyright infringement, in a case that was filed back in 2004. This is the first such sentence passed by an Estonian court.

Speek was found guilty for illegally downloading and distributing popular video games, movies, and business software. Despite all the warnings and police raids to his home over the last six years, Speek continued to violate the copyright law.

Adobe Systems, Autodesk and Microsoft also brought a EUR 100,000 (USD 143,000) claim against Speek, which was partially satisfied in October 2010, when the court ordered Speek to pay EUR 6,680 (USD 9,546) in compensation to these companies.

In Estonia, the maximum sentence for illegal reproduction and distribution of copyrighted material is three years in prison.

For more information, please contact Aleksandra Pavlovic at our Macedonia office.

Source: ERR News — Estonian Public Broadcasting English-language news portal

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