Bosnian Courts Convict 195 Pirates in the Last Four Years

From the beginning of 2005 to the end of 2009, 210 charges were pressed against 223 people accused of copyright infringement. As of January 2010, 179 sentences have been passed for 195 individuals, while other cases are still undergoing court proceedings.

“On several occasions police found individuals possessing entire plants for the production of illegal disks,” said the court spokesman Boris Grubesic. “One police raid resulted in the seizure of over 20,000 illegally produced CDs and DVDs”, Grubesic added.

There are booths selling pirated movies, music, computer software and games on the streets of almost every Bosnian city or town. Bosnia has been actively working to suppress this type of crime, but the problem still persists because of the shortage of police officers controlling the sites where illegal items are distributed.

Charges were recently pressed against Fahrudin Golos and his company Witnet from Tuzla, northeastern Bosnia. Golos gained substantial profits by falsely presenting his company as an authorized Microsoft partner. He signed a contract with Bosnia’s Federal Employment Service to deliver and install the Microsoft Office packet, which turned out to be an illegal copy.

For more information, please contact Alma Vilic in our Bosnia and Herzegovina office.

Source: Sarajevo-x.com