Seoul Jungbu Police Station said it was investigating a complaint by Microsoft Korea lodged against the bank on Feb. 4 for installing and using pirated office software worth W3 billion (US$ 2.97 million). The police said 7,900 of the bank's 11,400 computers, or 61 percent, were running pirated Microsoft programs.

The bank purchased 1,500 sets of MS Office 2000 in 2001 and took over the right to use it on another 3,000 terminals from a bank it acquired at the end of 2002. That gives it the legal right to operate the program on only 4,500 computers, Microsoft says.

The bank reportedly asked the IT maintenance company it employs to install illegally copied Microsoft software on the hard drive of all its terminals in 2003. Microsoft also charges the bank with failing to renew its contract for the 4,500 terminals, which expired in November last year.

Police called in the bank's IT support staff and its vice president in charge of IT for questioning on March 18 and are thinking of summoning the president and CEO too. Executives told police the president knew nothing.

The bank denies wrongdoing saying under its contract with Microsoft it is allowed to make as many copies of the purchased software as it likes. It said the only problem was that the accounts were not settled correctly in the course of renewing the contract.

(Kim Jung-hoon, runto@chosun.com )