A Ukraine national was arrested in Cape Town yesterday for allegedly selling pirated software, following a tip-off from the Business Software Alliance (BSA).
Andriv Goncharko, also known as Andre Victor, a navigational officer and captain of a shipping vessel, is charged with contravening the South African Counterfeit Goods act and the Copyright act. The BSA says the police seized 181 CDs valued in excess of R500 000.
"Goncharko is one of the first individuals to be arrested in SA for allegedly contravening the Counterfeit Goods Act in respect of counterfeit software," comments Mark Reynolds, BSA chairman.
According to the BSA, Goncharko purportedly sold the illegal software through two Internet Web sites and two local classified print publications.
The investigating team included the Border Police and the computer crimes specialists of the Crime Intelligence Services, as well as the BSA.
"The current piracy rate is 45%," says Reynolds, "which means that one out of almost every two software packages is pirated."
Share