Archived News Article
By Ray Geroski, Tech Republic
In two recent articles, we offered one network admin’s experience with software licensing compliance and then shared member reactions to the article. The responses to these articles indicate a couple of things: Software licensing compliance remains a challenge, and many members don't fully understand the role of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) in protecting software companies’ intellectual property rights or its authority to ensure that business users do not violate licensing agreements. To ensure that your company remains in compliance and doesn’t suffer the consequences of a BSA audit, you need to know the facts about the BSA and the actions it takes to enforce licensing agreements.
History
With offices in the United States, Europe, and Asia, the BSA was established in 1988 to serve the interests of software and e-commerce developers in the international marketplace and currently represents those interests in 65 countries worldwide. Robert Kruger is the BSA’s vice president of enforcement for its North America Anti-Piracy Campaign. He said that the BSA was originally established in response to the concerns of software developers about the lack of protections for commercial products overseas.
“In 1988, these companies looked to Europe and Asia as the next frontier for their commercial operations, and they were rightfully terrified by what they saw. They saw no protections in place for the types of products they sold.”
Thus, the BSA was initially established to develop the kinds of property protections in foreign markets that covered the companies’ products in the United States. It wasn’t until five years later, in 1993, that the BSA actually launched its North American campaign against software piracy.
Roster
The BSA’s biggest strength is perhaps its membership, and two of the companies that were among the original founders remain powerful members: Microsoft and Autodesk.
“Just about every other company has undergone some kind of a change in corporate identity, so that we now have, at least on the face of it, a different roster of members,” Kruger said.
The BSA’s current membership boasts the biggest companies in the computer industry. In addition to Microsoft, it includes Adobe, Apple, and IBM, companies whose presence in international markets demands some kind of protections for their properties. Kruger said that as a result of the BSA’s efforts, most countries in the international marketplace now have laws in place designed to protect the intellectual property rights of software and e-commerce developers.
Enforcement
The strength of its membership has helped the BSA grow into a powerful organization that is increasingly flexing its muscles to fight software piracy and maintain licensing compliance among business users. Kruger said that the BSA is best known today for its efforts to enforce software licensing laws.
“We are viewed by many as the software police, the organization that will, in fact, investigate and pursue instances of infringement that come to its attention.”
Perhaps the most potent action the BSA takes is the auditing of companies under investigation for possible software license infringements. When the BSA has obtained adequate evidence to pursue a case, it will obtain court orders to conduct audits of the software installed on company computers. Kruger emphasized that this occurs only in cases where the BSA has gathered enough evidence to show that a company has violated software license agreements.
“We try very hard here to make sure that we’re only proceeding on the basis of reliable information.”
The investigation
Information on possible violations typically arrives via the BSA’s piracy hotline or its Web site. In most cases, Kruger said, the callers are either current or former employees of the companies they are reporting. He acknowledged that many are former employees who feel they’ve been wronged by the companies in some way.
“We’ve found that there are plenty of employees with an axe to grind who actually have very good, credible, detailed information. The challenge for the BSA, of course, is to separate out the disgruntled employees with good information from the disgruntled employees with bad information.”
Only when the BSA has established that the information is credible does it begin to take action against the targeted company. After the preliminary investigation, which includes obtaining a detailed statement from the caller and checking registration records with the software company whose licenses are being violated, the BSA contacts the company to give it the opportunity to cooperate in the investigation. At this point, however, the BSA has already built a solid case of license infringement against the company and will likely end up levying fines against it.
“If a company is being contacted by the BSA either directly or through our lawyers, it’s usually too late for the company to simply get into compliance; it's too late to do what they should’ve done in the first place.”
The consequences of noncompliance
What can happen if you fail to comply with the licensing agreements for the software you use? Consider the case of Washington, DC-based Adrenaline Group Inc., a software development and Web consulting company. In May 2001, the company agreed to pay $103,000 to the BSA to settle a claim that it was using unlicensed commercial software. A Washington Post article reported that Adrenaline Group was among hundreds of companies that were tipped off to the BSA via its piracy hotline.
After being contacted by the BSA, Adrenaline Group conducted an internal audit and found it was using more copies of particular programs than it had licenses for. Adrenaline said that the software licensing issue was unintentional and arose as a consequence of the company’s rapid growth. According to Kruger, this is the case for many of the companies the BSA has investigated. Companies that run into problems aren't necessarily bad—they just haven't paid enough attention to their software licensing.
When the BSA has established solid evidence of violations and contacted the company, the company must take steps to get into compliance. It will also have to pay fines for the violations.
Kruger said that the violating company must take these actions to resolve the case:
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