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By Sarah Left, 20 March 2000 00:15

NEWS The Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) came under fire in this week's Behind the Headlines, as IT directors hit back against accusations of sloppy record-keeping. Last week, FAST accused IT directors of failing to keep tabs on their IT equipment. Speaking at a London debate, Geoff Webster, chief executive of FAST, said: "Most of the blame has to fall fairly firmly on the IT director, for a lack of attention to IT management." But this week's guests insisted the blame for software piracy rested with the IT industry itself, not with IT directors. Rene Carayol, former IT director at IPC magazines, had no time for FAST's position. He said: "I still see them as apparatchiks of the software industry. If they're really going to be useful, let them give us the means to count automatically. It once cost me three months to count everything in my organisation. The next week it was out of date." Former IT director, Richard Sykes - now chairman of Morgan Chambers - agreed, arguing that the job of the IT director is about service to the company, not about counting IT equipment. Sykes said: "If you tell IT directors that they've got to be control freaks, dominating a knowledge of everything they've got, you're going to be out of this house in next to no time. A lot of the equipment, especially the mobile stuff, may be personal equipment you're using on company business, or company equipment you're using quite legitimately on personal business. If you're going on an international trip, you're not going to carry two laptops, one for doing your stock investments and one for doing your company business." Only Chris Setz, director of the Network Professional Association, spoke up for FAST. But even he conceded: "It's up to the software industry to provide licensing models that will dissolve the problem." Also up for discussion this week are the Lastminute.com flotation and accusations that the French are falling behind in ecommerce. You can watch the full programme in our IT Director Channel (http://www.silicon.com/a36398 ).