Provo, Utah-based Novell Inc is hailing a judgement in the US Bankruptcy Court for Central District of California, that the acts of software pirates are not dischargeable when they then go bankrupt: Novell says that copyright and trademark protection of software, sound recordings and movies have been undermined by defendants using bankruptcy as a shield to avoid lawsuits or damages for acts of intellectual property piracy; the judgement came in a suit brought by Novell for Federal Copyright Act, Federal Trademark Act and Unfair Competition (Lanham) Act claims against reseller MedPerfect Systems Inc and its owner Ronald Frank, who admitted making unauthorised copies of Novell software as part of an office automation and record keeping computer system that was sold to dentists in Southern California.
