Software Asset Management (SAM) Blog

An Australian engineering firm has been fined AU $76,000 for mis-using software from Autodesk. According to reports, the engineering firm had failed to co-operate with Autodesk after the vendor suspected it was not adhering to licensing conditions around its design software. The penalty was set by the Federal Magistrates Court of Australia on 19th January 2009.

The anti-software piracy organization, the Business Software Alliance (BSA), has announced that it paid out more than $136,000 dollars in rewards to piracy whisteblowers in 2008. The organization actively incentivises individuals to inform it of possible instances of software piracy, with a scheme offering up to $1 million in rewards.

According to the BSA, however, many individuals opted out of receiving a reward - so the total paid out could have been higher.

The BSA is expecting an increase in tip-offs in 2009, as organizations are tempted to attempt to save costs by failing to properly license the software they use.

According to the research firm IDC, IT spending in 2009 will grow by less than 1 percent in the USA (down from a forecasted 4.2 percent). Forrester Research predicts growth of 1.6 percent in the US in 2009, down from their previous forecast of 6.1 percent.

A new survey commissioned by the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has found that 18 percent of UK directors do not know whether their software licenses are checked to ensure they are valid. Nearly a quarter of all those questioned said licensing was only checked once a year.

With 2009 expected to follow 2008’s trend for increased levels of software audit and non-compliance fines, company directors and those charged with ensuring IT compliance would do well to take a closer interest in their organization’s software.