Critical software stolen without permission or compensation
(Software Piracy)
Deployed on over 41,000 servers in a government data center
(later destroyed to hide the evidence)
Government steals and refuses to pay the bill:
A shocking injustice
Threatens all American innovators and entrepreneurs who rely on basic protections under the law
When a small business creates something valuable that the government needs, the government should BUY it, not STEAL it, LIE about it, DESTROY evidence to cover their tracks, and then refuse to pay the bill.
This theft without just compensation undermines the very foundation of American innovation, American values, and the protection of American private property.
Our fight is your fight—a small Veteran-Owned company crushed by federal power, denied fair compensation for its work and private property.
This is about Making America Great Again by honoring ingenuity, not exploiting it, and by honoring contracts, not denying their existence.
As stated in your White House "Fact Sheet: Trump Declares National Emergency to Increase Our Competitive Edge & Strengthen Security", released on the official White House X account on April 2, 2025, the annual cost to the U.S. economy of counterfeit goods, pirated software, and theft of trade secrets is between $225 billion and $600 billion.
Perversely, between 2013 - 2014, our own government pirated over $3 billion of software from an American Veteran-Owned Small Business and still refuses to pay.
We respectfully request a meeting to discuss:
"It is as much the duty of government to render prompt justice against itself, in favor of citizens, as it is to administer the same between private individuals."
Abraham Lincoln's words—engraved in the very marble of the Court of Federal Claims—stand in stark contrast to the treatment of this American company.
Lincoln understood that a government must hold itself accountable. Yet today, this foundational American principle lies abandoned.
When government steals from its citizens rather than paying its debts, Lincoln's vision of justice crumbles.
JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED
4DD Software, an innovative Veteran-Owned (USMC) company betrayed by government theft of their groundbreaking software solution.
A decade-long fight for justice continues as the government uses lawfare tactics to avoid paying for what they stole.
4DD Software developed TETRA, a groundbreaking platform that federates disparate data systems.
We solved one of the biggest data problems in government.
In 2013, after a 5-month long technical evaluation in which 4DD set a new standard for interoperability by beating Industry Giants such as Oracle, IBM, SAP, Information Builders and others, the Defense Health Agency licensed TETRA to become the keystone for the Multi-Billion Dollar iEHR / DMHSM / Genisis / VistA Modernization programs.
This is the very program that is charged with delivering Healthcare to our Service Members and Veterans.
The government didn't just use TETRA; they engaged in enormous theft through software piracy, copying the software tens of thousands of times in a government data center. They destroyed evidence to cover their tracks, and now they're refusing to pay. Worse still, they greatly benefited from this illegal use, reaping significant advantages from TETRA's capabilities.
They leveraged TETRA's success to release billions in government funds that had been blocked by Congress due to years of failure, turning their crime into a key that unlocked massive financial resources.
This is a blatant case of profiting from theft while evading accountability.
When confronted, the government resorted to lawfare—weaponizing the legal system to avoid accountability—leaving this American company fighting for justice against a Goliath with unlimited time and unlimited resources.
4DD filed Case 1:15-cv-00945-EGB seeking compensation for the government's theft of TETRA (Copyright Infringement / Software Piracy).
The government intentionally destroyed critical evidence, including an entire government Data Center in Richmond, VA along with hard drives and data from subcontractor laptops. The court found this was done to "deprive plaintiffs of information."
The trial court ruled that the government "lied," "engaged in fraud," "intentionally destroyed evidence," and "hid its misconduct" in a calculated effort to cover up the theft.
For over a decade, the government has dragged out litigation, forcing 4DD to commit over $50 Million in legal fees and costs to fight for payment for the theft of our private property.
The Court's current stance on hypothetical negotiations is a judicial fantasy, a baseless construct that rips damages from the foundations of reality.
By dreaming up a negotiation that never happened—ignoring the actual, binding agreements between 4DD and the government—it substitutes hard-fought market value with speculative nonsense.
This isn’t justice; it’s a fictional rewrite of real-world deals, leaving innovators like 4DD defenseless against exploitation, their rightful compensation slashed by judicial whims rather than anchored in the concrete worth of their creations.
This approach doesn’t just undervalue innovation—it guts the incentive to create.
When courts toss aside negotiated rates for imaginary products with imaginary bargains, they signal to innovators that their unique works can be stolen and devalued with impunity.
The promise of fair protection under copyright law becomes a sham, replaced by a rigged game where infringers like the government can dodge accountability, chilling the very spark of creativity that drives progress.
Innovators are left robbed—not just of rewards, but of the security to push boundaries and safeguard what’s theirs.
Court verified an active and in-force contract existed at the time of the software theft.
Cost per license × number of licenses stolen = amount owed.
Trial court confirmed both the theft volume and the contractual price.
Government continues making baseless arguments to avoid payment.
The government's lawfare has needlessly obfuscated this straightforward case.
When a debt is legitimate, as is the case here, payment is due.
Active-Duty Service Members and Veterans suffer from incomplete medical records due to persistent interoperability failures across DoD and VA systems, causing delayed diagnoses, duplicate treatments, and substandard care.
In 2015, under Senior DoD officials' direct oversight (Frank Kendall, Undersecretary for Acquisition and Logistics), the government stole 4DD's TETRA software solution that could have fixed these problems (according to the government's own validation) as part of the iEHR / DHMSM / Genisis / VistA Modernization programs.
Rather than achieving results, the government has once again chosen the costly trap of handing over untold billions of taxpayer dollars to bloated defense contractors. These funds—squandered on an endless parade of broken promises and ineffective solutions—have utterly failed to deliver the critical interoperability our systems desperately need.
The revolving door between government officials and big contractors chokes innovation.
As officials swap public duty for plush corporate gigs, they erode trust and sideline bold thinkers. Creative American companies get crushed, their ideas and software pilfered, while the old guard profits. This isn’t just a flaw—it’s a theft of America’s inventive soul.
Fair compensation for stolen intellectual property (software)
Government must honor its contracts and obligations
Protection of American innovation
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) aims to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse throughout all facets of our Federal Government, and that goes both ways.
Payments that should be stopped should be stopped and payments that should be made should be made.
We're confident DOGE will agree that intellectual property theft cannot be justified, especially at massive scale.
The court's current "hypothetical negotiation" valuing a FICTIONAL PRODUCT that has never existed, instead of the ACTUAL PRODUCT that they stole (pirated), extends lawfare tactics into the absurd and delivers no justice at all.
By this standard, the government can steal anything it wants, pretend it's something else (totally made up), and escape paying for what it actually stole. Where's the protection and justice for American companies?
This approach incentivizes greater misconduct: the bigger the theft, the bigger the discount.
That's not right. This cannot be allowed to become the standard that's applied to American industry.
Federal Government Caught Stealing
(Software Piracy) (2015)