BSA: Firms using unlicensed software are negligent

18/05/2009

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has said firms that using unlicensed software are acting negligently.

Not all cases of illegal software use are intentional, the group has acknowledged - as sometimes one company takes over another without full knowledge of the practises and software it is inheriting.

In most cases, the use of illegal software installations were because of negligence, which is why the association tries to raise it as an issue says, Julian Swan, EMEA director of compliance marketing for the BSA.

My Swan explained that counterfeit, people illegally downloading or buying copied software, is one issue "but by far the biggest area is companies using more than they have licenses for".

The BSA has recently released the sixth annual global International Data Corporation (IDC) piracy study, which revealed the amount of pirated software on PCs in the UK rose by 27 per cent last year.

An earlier IDC assessment claimed that reducing software piracy by ten per cent over the next four years would create more than £6 billion in economic growth.

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