one of my closest friends, (we'll call him Walt) called me today and tells me he is being sued by Waves for $75k for using pirated copies of their SSL G-Master Buss Compressor plugin, and Diamond Bundle in his studio.
Back in March he was approached by a potential client who presented himself as a needing a studio who had these plugins to allow for compatibility in other studios. The "client" visited his studio where he chatted it up, and asked to see the plugins in action. My friend happily obliged and then 3 months later received a letter from Waves about the lawsuit.
This studio is based out of his home. He has a PC based studio set up in the living room... kind of a lounge, beat making studio. This is where all the alleged pirated stuff is... and this is where Walt showed him the Waves plugins he was asking about.
The second studio is the really nice facility which is all Intel Power Mac running Logic Pro. This studio has no Waves software on it. This is the studio that people come and pay to use mostly.
In the letter however it states that he had copies of both of these products in both of his studios (he doesn't). The letter included a phone number which he called and he spoke to some people who wanted to hear his side of the story. He told them he only had demo versions on his machines, and that if the client had actually booked the time and paid the deposit that he would have purchased the software. They told him that there was nothing more to say and they would see him in court.
I hate to see hardworking people get the shaft, and I am worried about my friend. This guy has 3 kids and 2 jobs, and now has to hire an attorney and deal with this bullshit.
Tell your friends to be cautious, and to use some discretion.
