Corporate Amicus, December 2025

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Article

Unauthorised software: Navigating the spectrum of software piracy and compliance action

By Krithika Jaganathan and Nirupama V Shankar

It is essential for businesses to maintain licences for all software used in operations. Industry data shows that Indian businesses receive heightened scrutiny from licensors through compliance specialists.  It is necessary therefore to study these global patterns to evolve a comprehensive response that effectively combats piracy and fosters a measurably robust IP regime. Discussing the legal standard – provisions of Copyright Act, three-pronged approach of Abstraction-Filtration-Comparison (AFC), and the ‘POSAR’ test (Planning, Operationalization, Separation, Analysis and Reporting), the article in this issue of Corporate Amicus also deliberates upon the grey area, i.e., accidental, legacy and inherited use. The authors, for this purpose, also investigate few unintended consequences of compliance monitoring. According to them, while ensuring lawful licensing is a foundational obligation and even unintentional misuse must be course-corrected, at the same time, enforcement practices should reflect the highest of ethical and legal standards. 

Notifications and Circulars
 

• ‘Small Company’ thresholds expanded to boost ease of doing business
   
• LRS Reporting Framework expanded
   
• Credit Information Reporting Timelines tightened for Commercial Banks
   
• Directions for undertaking of financial services by NBFCs amended
   
• Directions to undertaking of Financial Services by Commercial Banks amended
   
• Directions for Non-Operative Financial Holding Companies amended 
   
• Miscellaneous Directions for Payment Banks amended
   
• SEBI notifies measures on strengthening governance of Market Infrastructure Institutions
   
• SEBI notifies periodic disclosures for Securitised Debt Instruments
   
• SEBI introduces reduction in denomination of debt securities
   
• SEBI simplifies procedure for issuance of duplicate securities
   
• SEBI enhances facility for Basic Services Demat Account for ease of doing business
   

Ratio decidendi
 

• Insolvency – Pre-existing dispute must be real, bona fide, and supported by credible contemporaneous material – Vague, afterthought, or unauthorised defences amounting to mere moonshine do not bar initiation of CIRP – Supreme Court
   
• Merely mortgaging property without lending money does not create financial debt – NCLT Hyderabad
   
• Agreed interest rate cannot later be challenged as exorbitant – Arbitrator cannot override contractual rate – Supreme Court
   
• Upon expiry of statutory period prescribed under Arbitration Section 29A the Court is required to substitute the arbitrator rather than merely extend time – Supreme Court
   
• Referral Court has jurisdiction to examine whether a non-signatory is a veritable party to the arbitration agreement – Supreme Court

News Nuggets
 

• Government scales up MSME support
   
• Airpay receives RBI nod to operate as a cross-border payment aggregator
   
• Insurance Amendment Bill passed by both the houses of Parliament
   
• Securities markets legislations proposed to be overhauled
   
• CCI okays Asia II Topco’s warrant acquisition in Federal Bank