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19. PW1 has also deposed that the loss and damage incurred by the Plaintiffs on account of Defendant's copying and illegally distributing copies of the Plaintiffs' computer programs run into lakhs and lakhs of Rupees. Since it is difficult to quantify the "exact" monetary extent of losses, the Plaintiffs bases their claim of damages of Rs. 20 lakhs on one or more of the following factors:

(i) Actual illegal profits earned by the Defendants from selling more computers loaded with pirated software programs of the Plaintiffs; and/or

(ii) Actual revenue lost by the Plaintiffs due to loss of sales of original software arising out of the illegal/infringing activities of the Defendants.

(iii) Damage to Plaintiffs' enormous reputation and goodwill in the following manner:

(a) The purchasing customers of the computers sold by the Defendants with pirated software of the Plaintiffs, will in all likelihood believe that such infringing practice of the Defendants is authorized by the Plaintiffs;

(b) If the pirated copies of the Plaintiffs software programs ever fails or get corrupted or malfunctions, the Defendant's customers, in receipt of those programs, will accuse the Plaintiffs and their software products of being of poor quality. Pirated software is more prone to virus attacks and malfunctions for obvious reasons.

20. I have heard counsel for the plaintiff and carefully perused the documents which have been placed on record along with the affidavit by way of evidence which has been filed. Court certified copies of the Original Copyright Registration Certificates for the software programs as owned by the plaintiffs have been exhibited as Ex. P5, Ex. P6, Ex. P7, Ex. P8, Ex. P9, Ex. P10, Ex. Pll, Ex. P12, Ex. P13, Ex. P14 and Ex. P15.

(Emphasis supplied)

29. Coming back to the facts of the present case, on the basis of the evidence placed on record, it has already been established that the Defendants are pirating the software of the Plaintiff and are also loading the same on the hard disk of the computers sold by them without taking permission from the Plaintiff. However, inasmuch as the Defendants have chosen not to appear, it may not be of any use to pass a decree of rendition of accounts. The Plaintiff will nevertheless be entitled to damages in light of the judicial dicta observed in Times Incorporated (supra) and the other aforementioned cases.