CADAM Says Raid Found Computer Program Piracy

CADAM Inc. said a raid of the offices of Vicon Industries Inc. in Melville, N.Y., uncovered illegal copies of one of CADAM’s software programs used in computer-aided design and engineering systems.

CADAM, a Burbank-based unit of International Business Machines Corp., said the raid was conducted Oct. 29 by the company, federal marshals and officers of the Software Publishers Assn., a trade group that handles software-related piracy claims.

The raid resulted from information given to CADAM by a former design engineer for Vicon, who claimed Vicon instructed him to make copies of the software after the program’s copy-protection device was broken, CADAM said.

The software involved is called P-CAD Master Designer, and was to be used on personal computers within Vicon, a maker of components for closed-circuit television systems, CADAM said.

Vicon has neither admitted nor denied the allegations, but said it has been cooperating with authorities. Vicon also said it has implemented stricter internal controls over who has accessibility to software and when. The company said it also reached a tentative agreement with the Software Publishers Assn., but specifics of the pact were not yet available.