Over a quarter of UK software is 'pirated'
Posted 21 May 2007 at 8:39AM by Simon Dickson in IT systems and support
It's been claimed this week that more than a quarter of all software installations in the UK are illegal. Anti-piracy lobby group, the Business Software Alliance, says the UK software business lost $1.67 billion to piracy during 2006, and current penalties aren't proving to be a sufficient deterrent.
'While it's obvious that non-payment of taxes or disregarding health and safety legislation can put businesses in jeopardy, software piracy is frequently ignored,' says Julie Strawson, vice-chair of the BSA's UK member committee. 'Yet aside from the damage done to the economy, using illegal software can increase security risks such as viruses and render companies ineligible for technical support or product upgrades. Those companies caught using illegal software risk also serious damage to their reputations.'
And Sophos security expert Graham Cluley warns: 'The corporate network is the backbone of any company and if you allow users to run anything they like on it, whether illegal or not, you shouldn't be surprised when it breaks.'
With 27% of programs being installed illegally, the UK picture isn't quite as bad as the rest of Europe: the western European average is 34%, and the figure for central and eastern Europe is a startling 68%. But the BSA points out that the UK figure has remained static for three years in a row, and is calling for urgent and more aggressive government action.
Strictly speaking, piracy goes far beyond buying dodgy copies of software at a car boot sale or Far East market, or downloading 'cracked' software from shady websites. Any breach of a product's licensing conditions is technically theft: this might be buying the discounted 'home and student' edition of Microsoft Office for use in your business, or doing a work task with a 'free for personal use' download. Besides, it's not always easy to keep track of what each program will and won't let you do. For example, some Microsoft licensing arrangements allow company employees to download copies of their office software for use at home.
The BSA offers free auditing tools on its website, as well as valuable guidance on what you should and shouldn't be doing. But you can also choose to avoid the whole issue completely, and base your business on free software: as we've mentioned here before, a single download will give you a free operating system with free office software, and no licensing worries.
Tags: audit, bsa, licensing, microsoft, piracy, sam, sophos
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Comments
2. At May 21, 2007 3:04 PM, Sunny wrote:
Software companies like Microsoft are the true pirates. They make software with lot of security flaws and do the beta testing on you. They never pay you for beta testing...and make you pay inflated prices. Support free software and open source.
3. At May 21, 2007 5:52 PM, G K wrote:
one thing gov can do is take control of those p2p sites who are sharing files free of charge.......with cracks etc.
But again I wonder why microsoft itself is having sharing facility in its os! Best way to prevent pirating would be lowering the price of software and give easy access to multiple PC.
4. At May 22, 2007 8:49 AM, Michael wrote:
If I bought the "Home and Student" version of Office 2007 for my shop, is this breaching the license agreement? I hope not, the "Home and Student" version has all the features I need and is better value. It seems to me companies like Microsoft create a lot of these "piracy" problems themselves.
5. At May 22, 2007 1:42 PM, Rob Harmer wrote:
Comments and claims such as eg; ".......and current penalties aren't proving to be a sufficient deterrent." made in this article are out of touch with reality.
Punishing and increased penalties for business is NOT the answer.
There is a way that you can "engage business" to help them understand how they can clean up their act, then both sides win. see http://www.pcprofile.com/We_Dont_Care_How_Much_The_Software_Industry_Is_Losing.pdf
Also, there is some risks to be faced with :.....a free operating system with free office software, and no licensing worries." Not quite true. There are issues with cost of ownership not necessarily being lower or FREE (due to more expensive Open Source staffing) AND IP leakage.
Where there is any bespoke software development for applications that have been created using Open Source for use by the business a key issue that needs also to be looked at is the Intellectual Property register and the location of where the Open source code resides and to where it has been -reloaded/re-submitted to the WWW/public domain....... eg; some/most Open Source through the GPL requires/mandates that any enhancements to FOSS items obtained from WWW (public domain sites) be re-deposited back in the Open Source community free of charge and encumbrance!
This can be an issue for some sites where you seek to have competitive advantage. Open Source and competitive advantage may be mutually exclusive at some installations, depending on what the governing management rules mandate.
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1. At May 21, 2007 10:42 AM, Gill Mackie wrote: