Foundry, Creator of Nuke, Demands Thousands of Dollars from Users Running Unlicensed Software

• UK-based software company Foundry is contacting users who are using pirated software.
• The company is responsible for developing apps like NUKE and is partnered with the likes of Blizzard, Disney, and Sony. 
• It is unknown how the company was able to track down users with pirated copies of the developers’ software.

Piracy has been a touchy topic as of late with a large number of websites and Kodi add-on developers being targeted for offering copyrighted content illegally. In such instances, customers who acquire pirated content are seldom affected. However, software development company Foundry has decided to make a move at individuals and companies.

The UK-based company is behind a number of graphics tools used by the media and gaming industry. Foundry seems to be unhappy about its software being pirated and is willing to go the extra mile to ensure that offenders are punished.

Unlike other companies that fine individuals and companies a few hundred dollars, Foundry’s demands can go up to tens of thousands of dollars. In addition to the copyright infringement fines, the software company is also trying to get back their investigation costs. Foundry’s EULA covers data harvesting, and it states “[Foundry may use the Information] to ensure that the usage of the Software by Licensee is in accordance with the Agreement and does not exceed any user number or other limits on its use.”

Foundry is likely to have analyzed data sent back from computers running pirated copies of their software and identified offenders. Unlike movies, TV shows or live-streams where users simply get access to a copy of the content, things are far more complicated with software. Most paid software have licenses that are handed out to users paying a subscription cost or a one-time fee, and they may or may not include DRM protection.

Any software that does not come with DRM can be easily ‘cracked’ by simply sharing the license keys (which is the case with the software company) while ones that come with DRM protection require cracks for usage without a license. Foundry easily identifies paid license holders who share their license keys with others by spotting instances of both legitimate and pirated software on the same system.

What do you think about Foundry’s method of targeting pirate users of their software? Let us know in the comments below. If you could share the article online, it would also be great so others can find it too. Come chat with us on Facebook and Twitter.