Jason Calhoun's Case Study
- Jason Calhoun currently serves as Enforcement Manager for Rosetta Stone, where he is in charge of the company's intellectual property protection and enforcement initiatives, including anti-piracy, anti-fraud, copyright, and trademark protection. Before assuming his current role, Jason served as Web Operations and Release Manager, Software Development Manager, Senior Software Developer and Web Developer, all at Rosetta Stone.
- As the Rosetta Stone brand became more and more recognizable to consumers, the company began to notice an increase in the overall piracy level of its software. Rosetta Stone knew that it had to take swift action to not only protect its revenue and brand reputation, but to protect its customers as well.
- Jason helped develop a system for Rosetta Stone that constantly monitors the Web sites, search engines, and the Internet in general, for any individuals or companies that appear to be selling unauthorized Rosetta Stone products. If software piracy is suspected, Rosetta Stone will pursue infringers whether they sold one copy or hundreds of copies. Penalties for software piracy can reach up to $250,000 per infringement, as well as up to five years in prison.
- To keep a level playing field with the pirates, Jason also relies heavily on individuals reporting piracy through various reporting Web sites. This helps Jason to better understand the threats that are out there and identify the biggest copyright infringers.
Relevant Quote
"I was one of the top software developers at Rosetta Stone, involved in the building of new Rosetta Stone software products and contributing to innovative developments. Now, 100 percent of my time goes into protecting our own intellectual property, and I no longer develop software. This should serve as an example of how companies have to devote resources that could be used for building better products to protecting existing products from copyright infringement."
- Jason Calhoun | Enforcement Manager for Rosetta Stone
- Jason Calhoun | Enforcement Manager for Rosetta Stone