An Iranian Android developer has won a court case against an unnamed individual who has infringed the country's copyright law by distributing applications built by him without permission. The violator is set to serve 91 days in prison and pay the plaintiff 600 million rials ($13,720) in damages.
The unnamed culprit employing a Telegram channel redistributed applications published on Iran's Android market Cafe Bazaar, which are protected under the country's copyright law.
Talking about the Telegram channels committing copyright infringement, the programmer Shahrdad Banazadeh says, "The perpetrator downloaded the Android Package Kit of popular apps from android markets and uploaded the file on their Telegram channels for free as a means to increase the number of subscribers," local technology website ITIran reported.
Contrary to the popular belief, this is considered a crime in Iran and is subject to litigation, resulting in fines and prison sentences for the culprit, he added.
An Android Package Kit (APK for short) is the package file format used by the Android operating system for distribution and installation of mobile apps.
Banazade further notes that the administrators of such channels which have thousands of followers in some cases shared adverts among the uploaded programs or sold goods through the platform.
While blocked in Iran, Telegram is still the most popular messaging app and social media platform in Iran with 40 million users. Telegram channels are vastly popular with locals as tools for broadcasting public messages to large audiences.
A law was passed in December 2000, in line with the preservation of the rights of software developers, entitling them to initiate prosecution over online piracy to protect original works.
As per the provisions of the law, developers own exclusive rights to their work for a thirty-year period.
