Someone just got caught shoplifting.
Forever 21 has been pirating Photoshop, according to a new lawsuit from Adobe, and it's facing serious fines as a result. The suit was filed yesterday in California District Court, alleging that Forever 21 pirated 63 different instances of Adobe software including copies of Photoshop, Acrobat, and Illustrator. Autodesk and Corel also joined Adobe in the suit, based on pirated copies of Autodesk, WinZip and PaintShopPro, among others. According to the complaint, Forever 21 "continued their infringing activities even after being contacted by Adobe regarding the infringement."
It's not yet clear how Adobe traced back the violations, but it has thoroughly documented them, providing registration numbers and dates for each instance. The result, according to Adobe, is "willful, intentional, and malicious copyright infringement," and they're asking the court to issue an injunction and compensate the companies for lost revenue, court costs, and additional damages. Adobe moved towards cloud-based versions of Photoshop and other software in 2013, and many responded to the shift by seeking out pirated versions of the software. In response, Adobe has actively encouraged employees to turn in employers using unauthorized versions of the software.
It's not yet clear how Adobe traced back the violations, but it has thoroughly documented them, providing registration numbers and dates for each instance. The result, according to Adobe, is "willful, intentional, and malicious copyright infringement," and they're asking the court to issue an injunction and compensate the companies for lost revenue, court costs, and additional damages. Adobe moved towards cloud-based versions of Photoshop and other software in 2013, and many responded to the shift by seeking out pirated versions of the software. In response, Adobe has actively encouraged employees to turn in employers using unauthorized versions of the software.
So can future shoplifters of Forever 21 use the defense that they were just following Forever 21's lead?
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