Organisations within the IT sector were the most common
offenders of software piracy during 2003, representing 24% of
settlements last year, according to figures from the Business
Software Alliance.
Other regular
offenders included construction/engineering and
architecture/design which together represented 27% of settlements,
and educational organisations 8%.
“It has been
another busy year for BSA legal counsel,” said Siobhan Carroll,
regional manager for Northern Europe at the BSA. “We are
particularly unhappy to see the lack of diligence within the IT
sector. We would like to see the IT sector as a guardian for our
mission but this clearly isn't the case.”
The BSA has been
criticised in the past for being heavy handed in its treatment of
organisations suspected of using unlicensed software. IT users have
complained that honest errors with licensing have been treated as
deliberate software piracy.
The BSA, which
admitted that many companies are finding it increasingly difficult
to track and monitor software use, has launched a website to help
organisations with their software asset management (Sam).
The site includes
a step-by-step approach to finding all of the necessary information
to get started in Sam, from centralising purchasing and
distribution to setting policies and procedures to creating and
maintaining Sam databases.
www.justasksam.co.uk.