Converteam pays £8,000 for unlicensed software

Included in the sum paid by the Rugby-based company to BSA, which represents the business software industry, was more than £2,000 worth of licenses to become compliant. "A lot of businesses do not realise that software is protected by the law," comments Philippe Briére, chair of the BSA UK Committee. "When a business acquires authorised software, a license is also being purchased to use the program under the agreed terms. If a user makes more copies of the software than the license permits, they are acting illegally," he explains. "This case highlights the financial penalties that have to be paid, if a business does not have correctly licensed software installed," he continues. "The abuse of intellectual property rights is a serious offence, and enforcement action will be taken against any company found using unlicensed software and can result in a damaged reputation and significant costs. In 2010, the total cost to businesses in the UK of using unlicensed software was over £2 million, more than double that incurred in 2009." Julian Swan, director, compliance marketing EMEA, BSA, comments: "Businesses need to recognise that software is a strategic asset for organisations of all sizes, which must be properly managed and optimised to derive the greatest possible value from it." "The installation of unlicensed software often happens when a company's management regards software licensing as purely an IT problem, rather than treating their software as a business asset." A 2010 study produced by IDC for the BSA found that by reducing the 27% software piracy rate in the UK by 10 percentage points over four years, over 13,000 high-tech jobs, £5.4bn in new economic activity and £1.5bn in new taxes could be created by 2013, with 87% of those benefits remaining in the local economy.