Tag: audit

The BSA’s “nauseating” anti-piracy tactics

We have often addressed the BSA and their piracy fighting tactics here on this blog as a warning sign for those who aren’t taking compliance as seriously as they should be. PC Pro Magazine recently wrote a story about a small business that was targeted by the BSA and the exact tactics that were used to strong arm them into an audit.

Licensing usage: Use as intended (always)

No matter what day or week it is, we’ll always get a question about “how else can we use our license” with a very specific example. The short answer is – you must always use licenses as they are intended for use, otherwise you will be out of compliance, and penalties can be steep! We understand that there are a lot of gray areas in your licensing agreement, but this usage is usually not one of them. One example of […]

Big problems with licensing in the UK

Businesses in the U.S. aren’t the only ones suffering, according to a new study, less than half of UK businesses believe their software is correctly licensed. An overwhelming 71% of those businesses admitted to having licensing problems in the past. A further look at the respondents showed that 26% were over-licensed, 12% were under-licensed and the remaining 13% were unaware. The study asked over 100 IT directors in the UK about their software licensing. The results are quite eye-opening and […]

Two more victims of the BSA

We have been giving many examples of companies that had to shell out to vendors after being audited and caught by the BSA. Most of them have been overseas so it didn’t hit as close to home as these next two examples will: Mueller Services, Inc., of Tonawanda, NY paid $62,270 to settle claims that it had unlicensed copies of Adobe and Microsoft software installed on its computers. The tip came in through the BSA’s reporting website anonymously. Bankers Warranty […]

What do I do with unused licenses?

Many organizations purchase licensing for planning and development that don’t actually get used and were not needed in the first place. The question is, can they go back to the vendor and “return” them? The short answer is yes; the long answer however, is much more complicated. Going back to a vendor and requesting a credit for unused licenses isn’t out of the question, but most vendors will then push to re-negotiate their contract, which could lead to unforeseen costs, […]

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