We need muscle to combat software sharp practice
According to software watchdogs, suppliers are losing hundreds
of millions of pounds a year because of unlicensed software on
users' systems.
And, as this week's clash between the Business Software Alliance
(BSA) and WH Smith Online demonstrates, the regulators are looking
to add bite to their bark, with high-profile court cases.
Using unlicensed software is illegal. Any firm that knowingly
does so deserves to be punished. But the devil is, as usual, in the
detail.
WH Smith held its hands up to the error and settled out of
court. It did a software audit and changed its procedures. But that
did not stop BSA making the whole thing into a cause
celebre.
So what happens when the boot is on the other foot? When
software companies ask users for £5m just to change the company
name on the licence? Or when non-backward compatible upgrades force
users to shell out again for software they have already bought.
In these cases - which Computer Weekly's campaign to Stamp Out
Stiffing has unearthed with depressing regularity - it is difficult
to get user firms to go public.
Meanwhile, as we have been warning for the past 18 months, a
proposed new law in the US designed to punish the use of unlicensed
software could give your supplier the right to reach inside your
enterprise and disable your systems during any dispute.
If you want to redress the balance, you should think about
putting resources into a pro-active campaign to end unfair practice
by software suppliers.
Public pressure, combined with private lobbying, has produced
results on stiffing. Major software firms have signed up to the
Computer Weekly/Eurim code of practice on software licensing. But
we still get a regular crop of horror stories about software
licence rip-offs.
Maybe it's time users took a leaf out of the software firms'
book. Few individual users have the muscle to take on the software
industry. So why not a user-backed watchdog to root out and
publicise software firms' sharp practices and help level the
playing field between software suppliers and their customers?