A New York-based brokerage firm downloaded $1.7 million worth of IBM online transaction software and didn't pay for it. In a lawsuit filed Friday, Big Blue says that between 2003 and 2008, Euro Partners downloaded extra copies of Informix software without paying for it.

Apparently Euro Partners was an Informix customer. IBM purchased Informix in 2001. In 2008 IBM happened to be looking through its books and found the outfit had not paid for a while. It sent them a bill for the missing years and was a little surprised when the brokers told it to go forth and multiply. The fact that the bill was $1,730,665.24 might have had something to do with that.

Much to Big Blue's surprise Euro Partners did not pay its bill and later refused to accept a new contract that would have covered previously licensed copies in addition to the extra copies. The outfit has not destroyed its copies of Informix as required by the licensing agreement and continues to use and copy the software.

It is fairly odd that an outfit was able to download software from Big Blue for years and even have access after the licensing contract was ended.