On January 12, 2012, the D.C. Court of Appeals held that the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) would not be required to disclose the name of one of its confidential informants in a civil case for defamation. Solers, Inc. had filed its lawsuit against a John Doe defendant for defamation after it resolved a…
I am an intellectual property attorney in Southlake, Texas who has handled more than 230 Business Software Alliance audit matters for small to medium-sized companies. For the last ten years, I have been representing end-user companies nationally in software audit matters initiated by major software publishers including Microsoft, Adobe, Autodesk, IBM and their trade groups…
Ericka Chickowski, Entrpreneur, 7/19/2010 You think software is expensive? Wait until you start using it for free. The fees add up when businesses are caught using pirated or improperly licensed software. And groups such as the Business Software Alliance and the Software & Information Industry Association are on the hunt for offenders. But many companies…
The Software & Information Industry Association is aggressively going after small and mid-size businesses, accusing them of software piracy. Many businesses are already under investigation, and facing potentially steep fines and bad publicity that could hurt their reputation with customers and business partners. Despite the fact that this is an issue involving software, it’s not…
Many people mistakenly believe that a license agreement, manual and a copy of software media are sufficient to prove ownership of a software product. However, in the event of an audit, trade associations or software publishers do not accept any of these as proof of ownership. To prove ownership, auditors want a dated proof of…
DALLAS — On the corporate high seas, piracy is everywhere. Companies are filled with computers but not enough software. When you cut costs and install programs on more than one workstation, you’re walking a thin plank. The Business Software Alliance, established in 1988, is cracking down on software compliance and piracy in the workplace. The…
Ericka Chickowski, Baseline, 01/18/2008 Let’s face it, software asset management (SAM) might be a best practice, but there are still plenty of organizations out there who haven’t instituted SAM due to a lack of resources or initiative. If your organization is one of them and the Business Software Alliance (BSA) hasn’t come calling yet, there’s…
Kathleen Melymuka, Computerworld, 06/12/2006 Robert J Scott, managing partner of US legal and technology services firm Scott & Scott, gives a lowdown on how to handle software audits. “There are two types of companies: those that have been audited [for software violations] and those that will be.” So says Robert J Scott, managing partner of…
Scott Leibs, CFO Magazine, 02/01/2006 December was a bad month for software pirates. Nathan Peterson, accused of selling millions of dollars’ worth of vastly discounted software via the Web, pleaded guilty to two counts of copyright infringement and agreed to pay more than $5 million in restitution to nearly two dozen companies, including CA, Symantec…
