Software management - are your software licences in order?
27/10/2010
By Henar Dyson, Senior Associate in Corporate & Commercial
This article examines the licensing of software used in your business and what to do to stay on the right side of the law.
When did your business last carry out an audit of the software loaded onto its systems?
Can you say that your business has a licence for every copy of that software?
Could you produce them?
It is estimated that over a quarter of software in the United Kingdom is unlicensed.
In reported prosecutions, significant fines have been imposed on businesses and they have had to make additional payments for the correct licences for their critical software.
In the United Kingdom, the legal position is that the developer of the software owns that software and the right to licence it to users. It is a common misconception that ‘buying’ software allows any number of copies to be made. The terms of any licence must be closely checked to ensure that the necessary number of licences have been granted for all the users. Sometimes, this task is delayed as businesses expand or become occupied with financial worries.
Enforcement can happen in various ways. The software developer can sue for copyright infringement or organisations, such as the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) or the Business Software Alliance (BSA) can investigate.
More likely is a visit by Trading Standards officers, who have power to enter premises and examine the IT systems of a business. Where illegal software is found, IT systems can be disabled until legitimate software has been purchased.
There is an upside to carrying out an audit. It could pay for itself by disclosing where software could be replaced with more cost-effective solutions or where too many licences are being paid for. It will also allow the business to consider regularly which products are best for its needs.
To ensure that your business complies with the law, we suggest:
- carrying out a software audit and introducing a system of regular auditing
- introducing a formal software policy to advise staff that they should not download digital content from the internet
- responding promptly to any approach from the BSA, FAST or Trading Standards in relation to software use.