Robert J. Scott, WestLaw Journal, 2011 Shrinking budgets for information technology and fierce competition among software publishers have created explosive growth in the incidence and frequency of software audits, a mechanism by which software publishers investigate their customers to determine whether they are in compliance with software licenses and copyright laws.
Robert J. Scott, Enterprise Features, May 2011 I am a lawyer that represents businesses in software audit cases initiated by software publishers and their trade groups including Business Software Alliance and the SIIA. I work with a team of lawyers and technology professionals defending software license disputes involving Microsoft, IBM, Autodesk, Oracle and Adobe. My clients range from global…
Ashlee Vance, The New York Times, 11/06/2010 Microsoft has demonstrated a rare ability to elicit the cooperation of law enforcement officials to go after software counterfeiters and to secure convictions — not only in India and Mexico, but also in China, Brazil, Colombia, Belize and Russia. Countries like Malaysia, Chile and Peru have set up…
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…
Christopher Danzig, Inside Counsel, 7/1/2009 Imagine you head a small company, with just a few dozen employees and computers. One day you receive a letter from a software industry trade group, such as the Business Software Alliance (BSA) or the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), informing you that it knows your company has unlicensed…
Robert J. Scott, The Advocate, 2008 Shrinking IT budgetsts, fierce competition and a mature software market have increased the motivation for software publishers (such as Microsoft Corp., Adobe Systems Inc., Oracle) to conduct software licensing audits – demanding that their customers demonstrate ownership of licenses for all software installed on their computers. Software audits can…
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…
Robert J. Scott, The SciTech Lawyer, 2006 Shrinking IT budgets and fierce competition among software publishers have created explosive growth in the incidence and frequency of software audits—a mechanism by which software publishers investigate their customers to determine if they are in compliance with software licenses and copyright laws. In addition to developing internal enforcement operations, many publishers have engaged trade associations to perform enforcement activity under…
