So this is interesting, the army got caught pirating (which I'm told is not a victimless crime) $180 million dollars worth of software from a company known as Apptricity, and settled for $50 million dollars.



Now I'm not about to get up on a high horse and decry the army for pirating in the first place because I think the act of pirating is a "crime" that has been greatly hyperbolised is the past and is mostly a grey are in terms of damage done. However I find it interesting that we have seen cases in the past where the amount of pirating was relatively small and it had tremendous consequences for the individual, but when the army gets caught doing so it amounts to (as the article states) a 73% discount on the software in question.



What do you guys think?



http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...or-50-million/

 

I think the settlement amount is a lot closer to a reasonable per-device fee than the contract called for ($5000/device) but still if you sign a contract, you should live up to it. This story is a ball of suck from one end to the other. Probably would have been cheaper to buy the software outright.