Scots police raid Honeywell for alleged music piracy

Servers imaged and staff questioned

By John Oates • Get more from this author

Posted in Security, 29th June 2007 12:57 GMT

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Strathclyde Police raided the Motherwell offices of engineering firm Honeywell this morning after a member of staff tipped off the BPI that company servers were hosting a "major filesharing network".

An employee is being questioned by police and company servers have been imaged for forensic purposes. The BPI reckons thousands of songs were being swapped on an internal network. This is the first action the BPI has taken against a company for piracy in the workplace.

Strathclyde Police and BPI investigators arrived at 8.40am this morning to serve a warrant. Suspects are still being questioned according to a spokeswoman for the police and a report is expected to be given to the Procurator Fiscal, who decides on Scottish prosecutions.

The BPI has been investigating the company for two months after a Honeywell staffer tipped them off.

Honeywell refused to comment beyond a statement which said they take copyright infringement very seriously and will co-operate with any investigation. The company has policies to stop such copyright infringement happening but the spokeswoman was unable to tell us what these policies were.®

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