UK firm pays biggest ever fine over 'pirate' software

An unnamed UK firm has agreed to pay a record fine of £250,000 ($498K) for running unlicensed software. The company (which operates in the infrastructure and public services sector) was running unlicensed copies of Adobe, Autodesk, and Microsoft software on hundreds of PCs across several UK locations. The Business Software …

[Anonymous Coward]

Fine?

Is this really a fine? Or did they just shell out for the actual licenses they use?

M.

[Mr D]

Fine?

Its £250k after all.. of course its not bloody fine!!!!

- coat?

[Anonymous Coward]

Fine!

from working in the Licensing arena I've had several customers who had to buy more than £400k for license shortfalls so it probably is a fine after the shortfall had been bought.

[Jason Irwin]

One more reason...

...to drop proprietary software and go Open Source.

Of course, and there's the radical plan, companies like Adobe could stop ripping off UK business by charging twice the US market price for their software.

[Ashtonian]

So , let me get this straight

The company was manufacturing and selling software and making money at it?

That's Piracy me hearties! or running multiple unlicensed copies?

That's copyright infringement.

[Anonymous Coward]

BSA is a Mafia

Any company manager or officer who even responds to a BSA audit request without first requiring BSA go get a subpoena should be fired. The BSA should always be required to present enough evidence to a court or judge to get a subpoena. Why? Because having been through a BSA audit, they declare every software installation that you cannot find the serial number documents for, including software (like the OS) that came on new PCs, to be pirated. So you can be 100% legal but unable to prove it. In which case, they threaten drag you through the courts unless you pay up.

As Carmine said to Dean Wormer in Animal House, “If you use the word extortion again, I’ll have your legs broken!”

[Ole Juul]

I don't get it

Maby the pound is worth more than I thought but Microsoft's recent fine for piracy looks bigger to me. I refer to news stories such as the following:

"Microsoft hit with $1.5 billion patent verdict | Software giant is ordered to pay Alcatel-Lucent for infringement of patents related to MP3 audio technology ..."

When is piracy not piracy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Opensource for a REASON

There's a REASON why you PAY for software.

If you dont like it, go opensource.

[Anonymous Coward]

Fine!

from working in the Licensing arena I've had several customers who had to buy more than £400k for license shortfalls so it probably is a fine after the shortfall had been bought.

[Martin Owens]

OpenSource

I thought the BSA would count FOSS as unlicensed software; or at least they did last time they made a count of how many windows machines where unlicensed.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh dear god

A 250kpd fine seems like a slap on the wrist with a soggy biscuit, given how little Adobe and Autodesk product that'll buy you. Over hundreds of installs, it seems well worth the risk. Sure, it's all a little embarrassing, but nobody's naming any names.

And oh yeah, and can the OpenSores lot please tell me where to find FOSS equivalents of AutoCad,InDesign,Illustrator,Photoshop etc that won't waste ten grand a year in lost productivity per user? Or even better, next time you feel like evangelizing off-topic just STFU instead.

[Anonymous Coward]

License costs

Whilst I do not subscribe in any shape or form to software piracy - according to our man Bill, prior to the introduction of activation keys 80% of software was pirated. Now this has been reduced dramatically - well done Bill. When can we expect to see this reflected in the purchase price??

Or true $/£ parity rather than equivalence?

Oh and whilst I'm on my soapbox, why is M$ licensing so bl***y complicated that half there authorized vendors don't understand it?

From an IT vendor for 20 years.

[Steve B]

Don't trust BSA even if you are legal.

A few years back, we were told by FAST that BSA would offer to "help" sort out the licences for a company and then having achieved that aim, would then turn round and demand recompense for any even minor irregularities found. One of the favourites was shareware where if any member of staff had installed a shareware product and then not used it since, this was not good enough as it needs to be removed completely or face a £1000 per day fine per seat. We were also told by FAST that the BSA was a private company and therefore one has no obligation to speak to them and all their correspondence should be binned. Following an article in Computing putting the FOG in everyone, I contacted them and they found that our facts were correct and they published a new article re BSA. This public exposure stopped most of the letters from BSA to company directors demanding lists of all the company licenses, which then used to end up and my desk with accompanied looks of horror as I threw them straight in the bin.

[Anonymous Coward]

open source

FOSS equivalent to photoshop is called GIMP.

I don't use it as I have no need to mess with photo's, but I am told by people that do. It is actually better as well as being free.

Don't know alternatives to the others. Start googling, you will be very surprised what FOSS software there is.

[Anonymous Coward]

Who did they pay the fine to exactly?

And what made them pay it? Did the companies whose software was (most probably unintentionally) pirated get any of it? Was this some sort of "bribe" to stop them being taken to court or something?

Sounds a bit like a protection racket to me.

Does anyone know what the money is going to be used for? Who profits from this?

If this was the US we'd all be moaning about how it's like the RIAA and MPAA campaigns of demanding money with menaces. We're just too polite for our own good this side of the Atlantic.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Oh dear god

"And oh yeah, and can the OpenSores lot please tell me where to find FOSS equivalents of AutoCad,InDesign,Illustrator,Photoshop etc that won't waste ten grand a year in lost productivity per user?"

If you want it, write one.

(C) 1995-2007 Open-Source Advocacy Stock Answer Project

http://stock-answers.sourceforge.net

[Pete]

more like cockup than conspiracy

Most large organisations are more-or-less incompetent at administrative

processes. I would expect that they simply "forgot" to license this stuff,

or even didn't know they had it.

In that case it's not piracy as an explicit act of "let's get something for free"

but just stupidity, which is much easier to believe.

[heystoopid]

Question

Question , which ex or current IT employee in the firm , is upset because he or she didn't get either the promotion or pay rise they thought they deserved!

The firm must be truly cheap and very stupid for not instigating and /or maintaining routine software installed audits!

The "Peter Principle" rocks on in the new century!

[Anonymous Coward]

You want an Open Source version of Photoshop?

Try The Gimp.

Okay, so I can't find versions of the other software right now. But please, before flaming, get certain facts right. I know plenty of companies that use The Gimp in preference to photoshop with no issues...

[Anonymous Coward]

Copyright Infringement?

"The company was manufacturing and selling software and making money at it?

That's Piracy me hearties! or running multiple unlicensed copies?

That's copyright infringement."

Not even that. Its.. license infringement or something. There is no copyright infringement here, surely?

[Steve Anderson]

Re: Oh dear god

"And oh yeah, and can the OpenSores lot please tell me where to find FOSS equivalents of AutoCad,InDesign,Illustrator,Photoshop etc that won't waste ten grand a year in lost productivity per user? Or even better, next time you feel like evangelizing off-topic just STFU instead."

OooooOOOOOoooooh! Get 'er! Handbags at dawn!

FWIW in my company we use OpenOffice, GIMP, Inkscape and Scribus perfectly happily, with no lost productivity. We're spread across Windows, Linux and Mac and also use things like Photoshop and Flash. By saving cash on bread-and-butter apps we can meet the (inflated UK) cost of Adobe software that we need developers to have without breaking the bank. So open source keeps us legal and productive, and prevents things like this happening.

So nerrr. (*Thumbs nose*)

[Jubal Harshaw]

Re: Oh dear god

My word, that's a pretty prickly reply - did open-source software kill your parents or molest you as a child or something?

As far as lost productivity goes, that's par for the course when moving to any new software - open source or proprietary. As for FOSS alternatives to the products you mentioned, you're right in saying that there isn't currently a decent alternative to AutoCAD but, as a sometime-graphic-designer, I have found Scribus, Inkscape, The GIMP and Blender to be pretty reasonable alternatives to Quark Xpress, Illustrator, Photoshop and Lightwave - and they're rapidly improving.

I'm not sure, though, that this story is a good reason to switch to open-source, unless your company habitually commits copyright infringement and breaks license agreements on a whim.

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it possible...

...that the company involved had the licenses for the software, but the install techies used one copy of CD and one serial number for all the machines?

I've seen that happen when lazy engineers put a copy of the install CD on the network to save them from 'wasting time getting the CD out' etc. Fine for Volume Licenses like Office, but bad for indivdual license [for products where you can't justify buying 100 licenses at once, like Adobe CS2 etc] obviously.

Also, I'll put £10 on Winzip and other 'trial' programs being part of it due to them being free to download, but not free for commercial use.

Lazy engineers + users with install rights = problems.

[Richard]

AutoCad isn't very good anyway, so meh!

For real, useful CAD you need a solid modelling package, like Solidworks or pro/Engineer.

I don't know if there are any good FOSS

And Photoshop? The GIMP is getting closer, although it's definately a few years away.

[Anonymous Coward]

Cross threaded

@BSA is a Mafia

If you want them to get a subpoena first, then you need to have the relevant lines removed from your Enterprise Agreement (though why you'd have an Enterprise Agreement if you were going to pirate software beyond me). You should find something like;

"... We have the right to verify compliance, at our expense, during the term of this agreement and for a period of one year thereafter if we have reason to believe you or your affiliate(s) is (are) non-compliant. To do so, we will engage an independent accountant from a nationally recognized public accounting firm, which will be subject to a confidentiality obligation. Verification will take place upon not fewer than 30 days notice, during normal business hours and in a manner that does not interfere unreasonably with your operations; provided that, if you demonstrate by written records that you and your affiliates are in fact compliant within the 30-day notice period, we will not proceed with the audit. ..."

Remember, too, that BSA/FAST is a co-op - that only one EA is required to get them all through your door without a subpoena.

@Oh dear god

BitTorrent will get you at least the F and one S out of the FOSS equivalents of those apps ;-p Alternatively, given the amount of money you'll save with FOSS replacing the rest of your software, how about you STFU and pay RRP for application verticals.

[Maligned Truth]

Free Software Equivalents

Enter that title into the search engine.

Duh! Thousands of FREE Equivalents exist.

Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part!

But, I do notice you whining and bitching an awful lot!

Also, there are 130,000+ free open source software apps at sourceforge, on bit torrent, and at fileplanet. Don't be so damn lazy, look them up!