By Jo Best, 18 August 2009 15:43
NEWS
Four manufacturing companies have reached legal settlements worth thousands of pounds over the use of unlicensed software.
Software industry body the Business Software Alliance (BSA) took action against the four companies who were unable to produce licences for all the software installed on their PCs.
The companies, which included a manufacturer of car parts and a company that makes office furniture, have paid out more than £50,000 in settlements and the cost of new licences.
The largest settlement came in at £20,000 with the most spent on new licences reaching £10,000.
All four businesses were found to be using unlicensed Microsoft software, while individual businesses also had instances of unlicensed versions of Adobe and Autodesk software.
Last month the BSA also settled legal action with three London companies, with settlements and the cost of buying the correct software licences totalling more than £100,000.
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1. Karen Conneely
UK businesses certainly do need wake-up call regarding software asset management.
From the new powers accorded to the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) to the importance of ISO 19770 software asset management standards, the stakes have recently been raised extremely high. Yet many organisations still fail to recognise that poor software licensing policies within the IT department could result in up to a 10 year jail term for company directors - not the IT team supposedly in charge of the software asset.
Organisations cannot afford to rely on piecemeal policies and inadequate asset information. It is only by instigating rigorous asset acquisition and disposal policies and recording detailed information about the software loaded onto every machine, including its serial number, that any company can attain real control over the software asset.
With this information to hand, organisations can immediately check for unlicensed software and manage user numbers against agreed licenses. If a machine is scrapped, rigorously updating the asset register will ensure that software can be reloaded on another machine, if the license allows. Furthermore, using alerts, an IT manager can be warned if user levels are reaching the license limit.
Inaccurate software asset registers are becoming a corporate liability. And, given the growing penalties facing senior managers across the UK, inaccurate software asset information is a board level issue.
Yours sincerely
Karen Conneely
Group Commercial Manager
Real Asset Management