On 5 October 2026 the Court of Milan sentenced an individual to nine months’ imprisonment for the unauthorized duplication of Materialise Magics, the 3D printing and additive manufacturing software, at the company where it was used. The court also imposed a fine of €3,000, ordered him to pay the legal costs and €3,592 of the software publisher’s costs, and held him liable for damages, which will be set in separate civil proceedings. As is common for a first conviction in Italy, the prison term was conditionally suspended.

Warning letters ignored

The case began in 2021. The company, a technical documentation and consulting firm serving the manufacturing sector, received two formal cease-and-desist letters: one from ITCA on behalf of Materialise and one from Materialise’s law firm. Both demanded that the unlicensed use stop and that the damage be compensated. The company rejected the allegations and kept using the software.

Materialise then asked the authorities to intervene. During a search of the company’s premises, police found the unauthorized copy of the software together with the crack used to install it. Criminal proceedings followed and, after several years, ended in a conviction on 5 October 2026.

Why this matters

  • Individuals are personally liable. Enforcement against companies is common; a criminal conviction and prison sentence for the person who copied the software shows that responsibility does not stop at the company.
  • Ignoring a warning letter has a cost. A license would have settled the matter in 2021. The outcome is now a criminal conviction, a fine, costs and a pending damages claim.
  • Usage data holds up in court. The publisher’s data, the search and the technical analysis together gave the court the evidence it needed.

ITCA’s team in Italy supported the case from the first warning letter, together with Italian counsel and technical consultants. The individual’s name is withheld in this article.

Read the judgment

The operative part of the judgment in Italian, with an English translation. The defendant’s name has been redacted.

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Header photo: Paolobon140, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped and toned).