Both the shop assistant and the manager of the IT shop are responsible for violating the copyright law
Recently criminal proceedings have been started against a number of IT shop assistants and managers, as there is strong suspicion that they have sold PCs with illegally installed or 'left over' software.
Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the police exercise significant efforts to cut sales of illegal software. Copyright violating activity plays an important part in having yearly hundreds of billion forints flowing over to the black economy, reducing tax income by 30 billion forints and losing thousands of IT work places. (1) Deceiving customers is also a factor in having a 7% higher software piracy rate than the European Union average. Free, copied software put law-abiding retailers into an impossible situation. In their efforts to fight the black economy and as a result of the cooperation of the two organizations, IT retail shops are regularly checked. In the case of about 200 of the more than 1000 shops visited the last 12 months, it has emerged that the copyright law has been broken in a businesslike manner. Only 15% of the outlets visited provided correct information about software and their copyright background. Due to the economic pressures of the shops, the majority of the shop assistants give customers misleading information, and - sometimes edging cases of instigation - give customers advice on acquiring and installing illegal software. BSA experience shows that even today many people are not aware that both the managers and the assistants caught in selling illegal software face criminal and compensation charges for distributing illegal software. Be it for free or for a symbolic compensation, the shop assistant who 'forgets' operations systems or so called test copies of software applications on the PC cannot escape responsibility either. Following the visits to the IT retailers, in a number of cases criminal proceedings have been started for breach of the copyright law as well as a number of software developers have announced their civil law claims against illegal distributors of their software. Recently criminal proceedings have been started against the followings shops: Following the test shopping in the Budapest I. district, Fő utca 14. shop of Mátrix Consulting Kft. the Budapest Police Force started criminal proceedings in which the Budapest I. and XII. district Attorney Office handed in indictment against two natural persons. In the Budapest III. Szentendrei út 16. shop of HC Computer illegal software was installed on the PC to be sold. During the criminal proceedings the Budapest II. and III. district Attorney's Office raised charges against the natural person. In its decision the 25 April 2006 the Budapest II. and II. Court levied a fine. Following the test shopping in the Budapest IV. Rózsa u. 1. shop of MicroWeb Consulting, the IV. district Police Force started criminal proceedings against unknown culprit. Following the test shopping in the Budapest VII. kerület, Bajza u. 1 shop of www.Profik.hu the VII. district Police Force started criminal proceedings. Following the test shopping in the Budapest VII. István u. 24. shop of Two KO KO Kft. the VII. district Police Force started criminal proceedings. Following the test shopping in the Budapest VIII. Légszesz u. 4. shop of H.F.H. Kft. the 13 September 2006 the Budapest VIII. district Attorney's Office handed in indictment to the Pest Central District Court. Following the test shopping in the Budapest VII. József krt. 36 shop of Maxtor Bt. the VII. district Police Force started criminal proceedings. Following the test shopping in the Budapest VII. József krt. 36. shop of IQ Network the VII. district Police Force started criminal proceedings. Following the test shoppings in the Mezőkövesd, Mátyás király u. 165. shop of Főnix Med Computer and the Mezőkövesd, Dózsa György u. 1. shop of Merlin Computer Kft. as well as the Mezőkövesd shop of New Style Computer the Mezőkövesd Police Force started criminal proceedings. In order to stop illegal distribution of software and to protect the interests of law abiding enterprises, BSA advises software developers to make increased efforts to inform customers and IT retailers and to disseminate widespread knowledge about legal software. (1) Economic losses are based on a 10% decrease of software piracy and on the data of the 2006 economic impact study IDC.