ABQ Zawya, Proleads in out-of-court deal

ABQ Zawya has received an undisclosed amount in out-of-court settlement for copyright breaches committed by Proleads.

Proleads yesterday placed a notice of apology on its website addressed to ABQ Zawya, which operates Zawya Projects, admitting that a number of Proleads employees and contractors have copied material from the Zawya Projects website, which was then published on Proleads' website, for almost five months between February and June 2009.

According to the apology notice, which was also circulated in e-mail notifications to clients, the breaches took place in 472 incidents. The settlement included legal costs and compensation for loss of business, according to Husain Makiya, Director of Opportunity Division, Zawya.

The access to the copied information took place when an ex-employee of Zawya approached Proleads and gave his Zawya username and password to a Proleads sales executive who then passed it on until it reached the research team.

Emil Rademeyer, Director of Proleads, said: "We have deleted all the copied information from our servers and have taken disciplinary action. We have also implemented new procedures for research and data."

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