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Seymour Woman Charged With Copyright Infringement

Posted on: Wednesday, 22 February 2006, 18:00 CST

By The Tribune, Seymour, Ind.

Feb. 22--A Seymour woman was charged Tuesday in U.S. District Court with copyright infringement involving Internet sales of software licensed for use by the U.S. Farm Service Agency.

Susan W. Brooks, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, announced that Julia Hensley, 28, Seymour, was charged Tuesday with copyright infringement, following an investigation by the Indianapolis sub-office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, OIG-Investigations and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Jeff Fisher of the Farm Service Agency office in Brownstown said this morning that Hensley did not work at his office. He declined to comment on the case.

Hensley could not be reached for comment this morning. The information alleges that from on or about Oct. 1, 2003, and to on or about Dec. 24, 2003, Hensley, a geographic information systems program technician with the Farm Service Agency of the USDA, reproduced and sold 41 infringing copies of software products made by Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc. of Redlands, Calif., on ebay.com and yahoo.com.

Those products included ArcView 3.2a, and the program extensions Spatial Analyst, 3D Analyst and ArcPress. ESRI develops and markets geographic information systems software for desktop computers, a news release from Brooks' office said. The ESRI software system known as ArcView 3.2a is used to create maps and perform analysis using data from various sources and provides the necessary tools for working with maps, aerial photography, database tables, charts and graphics all at once.

The ArcView software, as well as the ArcView extensions known as Spatial Analyst, 3D Analyst, Network Analyst, and ArcPress, are owned and copyrighted by ESRI and its third-party licensors. ESRI staff routinely monitored Internet auction Web sites for illegal sales of its software.

The USDA purchased a Perpetual Software License from ESRI for GIS software products, including ArcView and the extensions, for internal use by USDA employees, Brooks said. The license was nontransferable and USDA employees were not permitted to duplicate, copy or sell the software to other U.S. government agencies or third parties outside of the USDA without the express written permission of ESRI.

It is alleged that Hensley brought to her residence the USDA's copies of the ArcView 3.2a, Spatial Analyst, 3D Analyst and ArcPress without permission from ESRI or the USDA and then made infringing copies of this software with the computer equipment in her home between on or about Oct. 1, 2003, and on or about Dec. 24, 2003, according to the news release. Federal officials say Hensley then placed advertisements for the sale of the infringing software through her account on ebay.com and yahoo.com. In total, it is alleged Hensley sold 41 infringing copies of the software for about $7,120 when the total retail price of this software if purchased from ESRI is more than $70,000.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven D. DeBrota, who is prosecuting the case for the government, said Hensley faces a maximum possible prison sentence of five years and a maximum possible fine of $250,000. An initial hearing will be scheduled before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in New Albany.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Tribune, Seymour, Ind.

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Source: The Tribune (Seymour, Ind.)

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