Not-for-profit organisation the Business Software Alliance says that as many as one in four companies are committing intellectual property theft by using pirated software, and they may not even realise they’re doing it. Are you one of them?
You could in theory end up in court as a result. So the BSA has offered a number of areas to watch for.
It is of course illegal to use unlicensed software. There are legal forms of free software like Google Docs (see the link on the left) but mostly if you’re aiming to make a profit out of using someone’s systems, they’re entitled to expect a payment from you.
Just about everybody understands this, and most contraventions are deliberate. But there are circumstances in which you can end up breaching copyright by accident, explains BSA. Here are some of the most common:
1. Mergers and acquisitions
It doesn’t take a great brain to work out that if the ownership of your company changes and you have a great influx of people as a result, you may not know what’s on their systems and certainly won’t be aware of whether or not it’s legitimate software. It’s worth doing a mini-audit to see whether you have enough software to cover your needs; after the dust has settled over a merger people often find they have too much and can save some money.
2. Expansion
Great news, your business is growing, you’re hiring, you laugh in the face of recessions. It’s easy, though, to wallop a copy of Word from an existing CD-ROM onto their computer (ditto Excel, whatever else you need) – are you sure that’s an official, licensed copy?
3. Changing needs, changing software
Still on the subject of growth, you might find new business wins lead you to look for new software. It’s easy to end up getting hold of something that isn’t as legit as you thought it was in the heat of the moment and in a hurry – but everything you use needs to be properly licensed.
4. Where are you buying?
Related to number three there’s the question of where you’re getting your software, and this includes software for your smartphone as well as for your computer. For sheer speed and the convenience of not having to leave your office, downloading from the Web is tempting and as long as the seller is legitimate there won’t be a problem. There are a fair few pirates out there, however, and you need to do a few sanity checks. First, does the seller offer contact details and a postal address? If not then they’re breaking the Distance Selling Directive so ideally you would deal with someone who isn’t. Second, are they offering a knock-down bargain basement price? The usual rule applies – if it looks too good to be true it probably is!
5. Trimmings
It’s not just the main system you use that needs to be kept under control. You can get caught out really quite badly by getting the wrong version of software for your business. Yes, of course the home and student version of Microsoft Office is cheaper than the business version; that’s because they get a discount to which a business isn’t entitled. OK, you’ll probably get away with it for a while, but if you ever have to phone Microsoft with a problem and you’re using a lower-spec version than you should, don’t expect much help. Also as you add to programs as you grow check that (for example) you haven’t added a huge amount of unlicensed features by (say) installing a new font you’ve just downloaded from the Web.
6. Taking on trust
You pay a person to keep an eye on your IT systems so they’re bound to be checking software licenses, aren’t they? Ahem. Well, maybe. But if it’s not in the contract or you haven’t had the conversation, they might assume you’re taking care of that side of things – it’s about buying equipment rather than running IT, isn’t it, they might reason. Have the chat before there’s a problem if you possibly can.
7. Your suppliers
Let’s assume you’re clean, you’ve checked all of your internal systems and you’re about to bid for some Government or local authority contracts. The tender form turns up and you find, quite unexpectedly, that you have to account for all of your suppliers and their ethics too.
This goes way beyond a software audit of course, but ensuring the legitimacy of your suppliers and the systems they use (managerial as well as technical) is becoming a major issue for businesses, even the smallest ones. It’s worth checking them out now – again, befor the question comes up with a deadline attached.
8. Buying from an unknown source
Say you’ve found some software, it’s realistically priced, you download it and it looks fine and feels professional. It still might be fake – there are some very sophisticated pirates out there. Check and check again, and try always to buy from a reputable source. This is a tricky area as it sounds as if we’re advocating freezing out new businesses, which we’re definitely not – but you have to protect your own business first. Hooky software might well contain viruses and other unwanted and unlooked for elements.
9. Record keeping
In case you’re ever asked to prove a piece of software is genuine it’s worth keeping a note of where you bought it. That way if it does turn out you’ve been taken in by a counterfeiter the authorities may be able to trace it back. Some software companies insist you keep the box as proof your software is genuine; if it says this in the license then you have no real choice, although personally I’d tell ‘em to go find their own storage space for a load of unused cardboard.
10. Rogue staff
Staff downloading software can be doing so because they’ve heard something is really useful, they’re using it at home, they may even be doing it at home whilst working remotely. You need a policy on what people may and may not do in the course of their business – and a clear indication of what happens if that policy is breached.
With a few sensible precautions there shouldn’t be any real difficulty. There are a lot of businesses out there who think pirating software is fine if they get away with it – it would be interesting to see what they’d feel if someone started taking their goods or services for nothing, but this article isn’t aimed at them. This is for the one in four who don’t actually realise they’re breaching the rules, and could suffer virus attacks, malfunctioning software which is then not supported by the legit manufacturer or reputation damage as a result.
Following the pointers above should be a good starting point in ensuring your systems are legitimate.
