In this photo taken Dec. 16, 2011 and released by U.S. Navy, its aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) transits through the Pacific Ocean. (AP/U.S. Navy)
In response to a $596 million lawsuit, the U.S. Navy has denied that it pirated copies of a tech company’s virtual reality software on more than 558,000 computers.
The suit against the U.S. Government, filed by Bitmanagement Software in July, alleges that the Navy copied and installed the company’s virtual reality software on hundreds of thousands of computers for which it does not have a license. The Navy was authorized to install the software on just 38 computers for testing, trial runs and integration with other Navy systems, the suit says.
The lawsuit alleges that the software has been deployed on at least 558,466 Navy computers and says it is likely that unauthorized copying has taken place on an even larger scale.
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In court documents filed Monday, the U.S. Government says that the Navy installed the BS Contact GEO software on “hundreds of thousands of computers within its network” but denies that the installation occurred without Bitmanagement’s advance knowledge or consent.
“Defendant denies that Bitmanagement did not license or otherwise authorize the installation,” the lawsuit added. “Defendant admits that the Navy has never directly compensated Bitmanagement for the Navy’s installation of BS Contact GEO, but defendant denies that Bitmanagement is entitled to any compensation for the Navy’s installation of the software.”
The Navy has compensated Bitmanagement’s authorized retailer for BS Contact Geo, the court documents say.
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A contract executed with Bitmanagement’s reseller in 2012 provided the Navy with 38 licenses of BS Contact GEO, according to the documents filed Monday. “Defendant denies that the licenses were limited to installation of BS Contact GEO on a total of 38 Navy personal computers, and Defendant further avers that the Navy procured conurrent-use network-installation licenses of BS Contact Geo,” the documents said.
The Navy began installing the software on hundreds of thousands of computers within its network starting around August 2013, the government says, with emails sent to Bitmanagement in the summer and fall of 2013 regarding the deployment. One such email indicated a successful deployment to 104,922 Navy computers, the court documents say.
BS Contact Geo enables the visualization of geographic information, according to Berg, Germany-based Bitmanagement. The software lets users visualize a “virtual military base,” according to court documents from the lawsuit filed in July.
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