Same software serial number not equivalent to copyright infringement, ruled the High Court

  In a judgment rendered by the Taiwan High Court recently, it is said that duplication of software serial number does not necessarily constitute violation of the Copyright Law, since there exists the possibility that Microsoft's software serial numbers would duplicate.  Microsoft's anti-privacy campaign certainly took a pounding from this judgment.

 

  There are many types of pirated software.  Among all the pirated software, those already installed in the computer present the greatest challenge to the determination of their authenticity.  To facilitate the determination work as well as evidence collection in the future, software makers have designed a mechanism called "license number".  Each legal copy is assigned a traceable serial number.  If it is found that the serial number of the software installed in a computer is different from the license number, or if several computers have installed software with the same serial number, it will then be reasonable to question whether such software is piracy.   

 

  As serial numbers can be cracked and even changed, the Taiwan High Court opined that if the serial numbers can be changed, they are also subject to duplication.  The Taiwan High Court therefore ruled that "same serial number" along cannot be used to convict the defendant of software piracy.

Translated by Jem Chung