Baines & Ernst Financial Management was one of five UK companies sued last September by the BSA for the alleged use of unlicensed software. The BSA, which represents its member software companies such as Microsoft and Adobe in copyright infringement actions, offers a reward of up to £10,000 for information that leads either to a successful settlement or prosecution for its members.
According to The Register, the debt management company was using more than 400 unlicensed copies of Microsoft Office and some unlicensed copies of Windows. The settlement figure was kept confidential. The company blamed poor software auditing for the mistake. The employee who blew the whistle is likely to have received 10% of the award.
The BSA estimates that more than one in four pieces of business software in the UK is pirated. In many of its enforcement actions, the companies involved simply failed to ensure that they had sufficient licenses for the software in use. Company directors are legally responsible for software asset management. Failure to take this seriously can result in an unlimited fine or in the worst case scenario – imprisonment.