BSA Audits FAQ
Q. What is BSA - The Software Alliance?
A. BSA - The Software Alliance is an industry trade group whose members include software giants such as Microsoft, Adobe, Symantec, Macromedia, and Computer Associates.
Q. What authority does BSA - The Software Alliance have to conduct audits and levy fines?
A. BSA has no independent law enforcement authority of any kind. Its rights are derived from a power of attorney provided by its member software companies. Those companies have rights created by their software license agreements and under the laws protecting copyrights.
Q. What will happen if I ignore correspondence from BSA - The Software Alliance or its lawyers?
A. BSA is well funded and very aggressive. Attempting to ignore the problem by not responding will likely make your problems worse, leaving the BSA with no other option but to institute litigation against you and your company.
News
22Nov
Scott & Scott, LLP Has Years Of Successful Experience Defending Software Audits
Scott & Scott is a business and technology law firm that helps businesses aggressively protect their intellectual property, understand and comply with applicable laws and regulations, litigate and resolve disputes, and consummate complicated business transactions....
5Oct
Software audits: How high tech plays hardball
Dan Tynan, InfoWorld, 4/25/16 ‘Truing up’ licenses amounts to billions of dollars in revenue for the major software makers. Here’s where the money goes — and how it’s extracted.
30Sep
Software Licensing Tips To Reduce The Risk Of Legal Action
Michael O’Dwyer, ipswitch, 9/29/16 If you require software licensing tips, don’t expect your software vendors to be of any real help, given the prevalence of outsourced call centers by many of the world’s global players.
Blogs
20May
BSA Pursues Software Audits Despite Questionable Information from Informants
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) regularly targets small-to-medium sized businesses for expensive software audits to determine whether those businesses are in compliance with their BSA-member software licenses. In furtherance of that effort, the BSA offers...
17May
Unpleasant Surprises in BSA | The Business Software Alliance and SIIA Software Audits
Another way in which publishers or auditing entities raise the amount in controversy in software audits is the attempt to assess separate “fines” for each allegedly infringing installation of a software product. Thus, a...
16May
The Importance of Understanding Software License Agreements to Avoid BSA or SIIA Software Audits
Recent trends indicate that software publishers are increasingly initiating direct software audits instead of outsourcing the auditing process to entities such as the BSA | The Software Alliance (“BSA”) or Software & Information Industry Association...
Articles
14Aug
11 Software Audit Best Practices
Robert J. Scott, Ground Report It is important to prepare in case a software vendor sends you an email or letter asking for an audit. Not being prepared ends up in loss of money and takes...
4Aug
Lessons Learned in Over 500 Software License Disputes
Finance Monthly – Spotlight Feature – Software Disputes, Robert Scott, July 2016 Regardless of whether the publisher is Microsoft, Adobe, Autodesk, Oracle, IBM or any of their trade groups including the BSA | The Software Alliance,...
11May
Software piracy claims can ruin your business and reward those responsible
Robert J. Scott, TechCrunch, 5/11/16 There is a highly divisive and costly practice that software companies have inflicted on their customers for nearly a decade. This practice brings with it significant emotional duress, time investment...