People in trading standards jobs in Swansea have carried out their first raid relating to software piracy.
Officers have had the right to enforce the 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act since 2007, but Monday (July 12th 2010) marked the first time that such a raid has been implemented in the Welsh city.
They were assisted by the Federation Against Software Theft (Fast), which had received a tip-off about an unnamed business downloading illegal software for company use.
John Lovelock, chief executive of Fast, said trading standards officials had the right to act without warning to stop the illegal activity.
"We will not tolerate intellectual property infringements and if we get evidence of this, we will come after you," he added.
Fast recently joined forces with Investors in Software to combat piracy after Business Software Alliance research in 2008 found that up to 27 per cent of computer programs in Britain are illegal.
Posted by Marc Casey
