BSA Raid Firms in Piracy Crackdown

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Available here
And this time they're naming names...So Watch out !!

Anti-piracy body raids more Irish firms
Friday, May 03 2002 by Andrew McLindon

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) Ireland has issued High Court and Circuit Court proceedings against more firms as it continues to crackdown on piracy.

The BSA said on Thursday that it had taken legal action against the businesses because it believed them to have "inadequate software licensing." A spokesperson for the BSA also told ElectricNews.Net that further cases were pending.

The companies involved are; Horan Keogan and Ryan Architects, Dublin (Circuit Court), Jefferson Computer, Dublin (Circuit Court), Xsil Limited, Dublin (High Court), Plaut IT Services Limited, Dublin (High Court), GM Steel Fabricators Limited, Louth (High Court). The actions are being taken in the two courts due to some of the software having different perceived values, the BSA said.

The organisation said it was taking proceedings against the companies following information received via its anti-piracy hotline. People who contact the hotline with information that leads to successful prosecution can receive rewards of up to EUR10,000. The penalty for company directors whose company has been found to have engaged in software piracy is a fine of up to EUR127,000 or five years in jail.

This is not the first time that the BSA has taken such action. Last August, it issued court summonses to several Irish businesses including Unison, Usit, Data Exchange and Irish Microfilm for the alleged illegal use of software.

Additionally, the BSA has carried out a number of raids in conjunction with the Gardai on businesses since the start of 2002 and settlements were reached in some instances.

However, despite the BSA's tactics, it appears that Irish businesses are still prepared to take risks that could force them to face the consequences of using illegal software. Julian McMenamin, chair of BSA Ireland, admitted in a statement that companies here are "continuing to deliberately flout the law."

According to a global software piracy survey conducted by the International Planning and Research Corporation, Ireland's piracy rate for business software was 41 percent during 2000. This, said BSA, means that almost one in every two business software programs installed in Ireland is an illegal copy, which hurt the Irish software industry to the tune of USD77 million in 2000.

In light of its recent actions, the BSA said it would continue its tough stance on software pirates and called for businesses to examine their software management policies. Among the measures the BSA recommended companies to take were the setting-up of a software purchase procedure and taking an inventory of software assets.

BSA describes itself as an industry watchdog representing the world's leading software developers and its members include Adobe, Apple Computer, Macromedia, Microsoft and Symantec.

sceptre

Making some inroads in the UK too (be careful when filling out those BSA audit forms)


From The Register

House of Fraser pays up for pirate Macromedia
By John Leyden
Posted: 10/05/2002 at 14:35 GMT


The Business Software Alliance has published the names of three London firms caught using illegal software.

Retailer House of Fraser paid an undisclosed sum to the BSA for the illegal use of Macromedia software, the organisation informs us. Euro Car Parts, a retailer and distributor of car parts, and Internet media company Prominent Pages were recently found to be using unlicensed copies of Microsoft software and were fined £7,500 and £20,000 respectively.

According to the BSA, one in four companies in the UK use illegal software. The organisation released the names of the three companies, to accompany a press release urging companies to complete its online Software Audit Return (SAR) today.

The BSA's twice-yearly audit programme, the most recent of which was launched in the UK a month ago, is designed to help firms en sure they are not using unlicensed software. The scheme provides companies with a self assessment tool and the downloadable guide to software management.

Firms successfully going through the process are issued with a BSA Certificate of Recognition, which was received by 19,000 UK firms last year.

Last year, solicitors DLA urged companies to "Proceed with Care!" when deciding whether to complete the BSA's audit form. It expressed fears that the form could be used to provide the BSA with the "evidence it needs to take action against you".

The BSA strongly denies this.

It says the form is confidential to the owner of the information, and it will only use it provide the company with a Certificate of Recognition - not to generate leads for investigators.

Richard Saunders, of Symantec, chairman of the BSA in the UK, said: "it's completely wrong to think filling out the form could expose companies to legal action."

"If companies have questions about compliance after filling out the form we won't say thanks for calling, we'll send the lawyers around."

Saunders said there is no legal obligation to complete the form, which he hopes companies will regard as a tool to help achieve compliance - rather than as a means to pry into their affairs.

And after that Bausch and Lomb debacle last March, it isn't enough to have licences for the software you "think" you have on your network - better go round and check.

sceptre

... this is quite funny (or at least ironic)

http://www.vnunet.com/News/1131606

http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=02/05/07/2234251&mode=thread&tid=3

(Microsoft convicted of software piracy)