Dawlish News

The Federation Against Software Theft, known as FAST to its friends and enemies alike, is encouraging company directors to make the use of unlicensed software a thing of the past. And this time any directors unwilling or unable to make such a new year's resolution could face more than a large fine and guaranteed public embarrassment; gaol could be on the cards.
FAST was set up by software authors to be a body to educate organisations on why they should only make use of properly licensed software. In addition the federation has long worked actively to support and encourage users of software, large and small, to take every effort to ensure that the applications in use are used in compliance with the appropriate licenses.
In the past some of this "encouragement" has taken place in the Civil courts where offenders found guilty can face substantial fines and in many cases large scale adverse press coverage. However this approach also offered organisations the possibility of settling out of court.
Geoff Webster, CEO of FAST, believes that the current harsh economic climate makes such an approach less likely to reduce software misuse. He said, "When budgets are under pressure, this approach simply isn't working. Figures show that in 2002 software piracy levels rose for the first time since 1994."
From now on FAST plans to use powers provided it by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act to provide evidence that might give Police Officers "reasonable suspicion" that an organisation is infringing software copyrights of its members. The act then makes it possible to apply to a magistrate's court for a search warrant allowing the Police to search premises; in certain instances a representative of FAST may accompany the police on the search.
Where sufficient evidence is found, the directors of the offending organisation might be liable to prosecution. For those found guilty the consequence could be time in prison. Webster added, "The message to company directors is clear: check your software licenses. Until then you cannot be certain that you are not acting illegally and on the way to receiving a criminal record."
It is true that many company officers have paid scant, if any attention, to the management of software licenses despite several widely reported cases over the last few years. This is strange considering the capabilities of leading software asset management tools such as those available from suppliers such as PS'Soft, Remedy, Peregrine and Altiris.
Such systems can provide much more than comfort from prison. There is a growing cache of research that continues to demonstrate that many organisations that actively manage the IT infrastructure, especially the software licenses, may save considerable sums over the lifetime of the assets. Saving money should provide sufficient encouragement to manage software effectively. If it doesn't, directors could now have something else to keep them awake at night. Anyone for porridge?