Armed
with a New Zealand court judgment identifying breach of copyright, US software
company Otoy Inc is now on the hunt to break-up a pirate operation run by
former employee, Russian software engineer Andrey Kozlov.
Mr Kozlov spent three
years in New Zealand working for Otoy’s Auckland subsidiary before leaving for
Russia in April 2015. Otoy holds
copyright in Octane software which runs on computer graphic processing units to
create computer-generated pictures. Its
special feature enables manipulation of the way light refraction is rendered on
screen. Within a year of Mr Kozlov
leaving, Otoy found software called FStormRender being offered online for free
download. Software settings and user
interface mirrored Otoy’s Octane, including terminology in setting options
unique to Octane. Analysis of source
code identified typographic errors also found in Octane’s code. FStormRender’s code uses lower-case letters
at the start of each setting dialogue; as did the second version of Octane Mr
Kozlov was working on before leaving Otoy.
Justice Muir ruled it
was a clear case of breach of copyright.
Source code is protected as a “literary work”. Nominal damages only of one dollar was
awarded. Otoy did not have access to any
of Mr Kozlov’s business records. It
could not assess if any revenue had been received. FStormRender is marketed by Pinksoft SRO, a
Russian company controlled by Mr Kozlov.
He was ordered to pay exemplary damages of $50,000 as punishment for
what Justice Muir called a flagrant and calculated breach of copyright. Otoy was authorised to seize any copies of
FStormRender it could trace. Otoy is
also taking legal action in the Moscow City Court.
Otoy
New Zealand Ltd v. Kozlov – High Court (22.09.17)
17.119