Software Asset Management (SAM) Discussion

Working Group 21

LATEST NEWS: 19770-2 Software Asset Management Tag

The third Working Draft of ‘ISO/IEC 19770-2 SAM Tag’ was released by the 19770-2 Other Working Group on 14 April 2008. This is available for public review until 11 May 2008. The full draft, together with the commenting template and instructions, in available for open distribution so long as it is without modification and without commercial charge. A copy is included in the ‘Downloads’ section of this website. A copy is also available from http://www.agnitioadvisors.com/19770-2-WD3/19770-2-WD3.zip

WORKING GROUP 21 INTRODUCTION

Working Group 21 (WG21) is the working group responsible for Software Asset Management at the ISO/IEC level. It is located within Sub-Committee 7 (SC7) of ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1( ISO/IEC JTC1).

David Bicket (of Deloitte, and also a director of Investors in Software - dbicket@deloitte.com.) is the acting convener of WG21. The British Standards Institution (BSI) provides administrative support for WG21. All members of WG21 are appointed by their respective national standards bodies, with Sweden and the United Kingdom having the most representatives. WG21 actively encourages people to take whatever steps are necessary to become formally involved. The precise way that this needs to happen varies by country, because each national standards body establishes its own policies and procedures for such selections. In the future, it is hoped to provide information on this web site about joining instructions for a number of countries so as to facilitate such participation. It is also possible to become a member of WG21 through a Category A Liaison (at the SC7 level, such as the itSMF) or through Category C Liaisons (at the WG21 level), and such Liaison relationships are currently being discussed with several international organizations.

WG21 normally conducts a physical meeting twice per year. One is in May, and is co-located with the plenary session of ISO/IEC JTC1 SC7. All working groups and special working groups have co-located meetings at this time, and the plenary session at the end - where the heads of national delegations each have one vote - decide on the progress or otherwise of various standards proposals. The second physical meeting each year is normally in October. Most of the working groups meet in a common location, but for cost and other reasons they may not all do so.

The ISO/IEC standard number which has been assigned to WG21 for SAM standards is 19770, with the opportunity to have different parts for the standard.

Acorn Engineering Company (www.acorneng.com), a manufacturer of stainless steel fixtures, has agreed to pay $250,000 to the Business Software Alliance (BSA) to settle claims that it had unlicensed copies of Adobe, Autodesk and Microsoft software on its computers.

In addition to the payment, the company agreed to delete all unlicensed copies of software installed on its computers, acquire any necessary replacement licenses and commit to implementing stronger software license management practices.

In the US, software piracy can result in damages of up to $150,000 for each software title copied. The BSA currently offers up to $1,000,000 in rewards for whistle-blowers who report software piracy.

The Business Software Alliance has launched a campaign to target software piracy in Manchester, UK. According to the licensing watchdog, the city has the worst piracy rate in the UK outside of London.

During May and June, Manchester businesses will be asked to take part in a “software healthcheck” to assess their own status.

The BSA says that companies that take part in the healthceck will not face further investigation, while those that do not participate may find themselves the recipients from an unwelcome visitor.

In the UK, software license enforcement now comes under the remit of Trading Standards, which has the power to raid businesses suspected of committing software piracy.

Having spent years aggressively fighting MP3 piracy, it is somewhat ironic that a recent raid on the company has led to a small software house suing the music giant for 300,000 Euros ($471,000 / £235,600). PointDev claims that it found Sony BMG was using unlicensed software after a support call was logged using a pirated keycode.

PointDev claims that Sony BMG had been using the pirated software since 2004.