Dear all
I thought I'd better pass on the e-mail below, which came from Dibb Lupton
Allsop (large, well-established London-based solicitors) - I have had their
permission to pass it on.
It may impact on any organisations with 20 or more employees. If you fall
into this category, I would recommend passing it onto relevant parties who
may be affected - most likely your senior management team or IT departments.
Regards
Chris Meaney (AIMC)
Managing Director
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Harvard Consultancy Services Ltd, Bexin House, 2/3 St. Andrews Place
Southover Road, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 1UP
Tel: 01273 897517, Fax: 01273 471929, E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
Registered in England & Wales no. 3766540
Registered Office: 50 Harvard Close, Malling, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 2EJ.
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Please see the warning below from DLA's Technology, Media & Communications
Group. In view of the importance and urgency of this matter, and the
difficulty of knowing how many people, and who, in any organisation will be
contacted by the BSA, we felt that it was important to notify as many people
as possible, as quickly as possible. We hope that you will understand if it
is not relevant to you and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.
NEWSFLASH
British Software Alliance Audit
Proceed with Care!
The BSA's Approach
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has recently announced that it has
sent all organisations in the UK with 20 or more employees a "2001 Software
Audit Return". Accordingly, if your organisation has more than 20 employees
you have probably received a copy. A covering letter with the audit states
a deadline of 30 November 2001 for responses and urges the recipient to
"treat it as seriously as a tax return".
The whole approach by BSA gives the impression of an official, or even
statutory, process which the recipient is required to comply with. In fact,
the BSA is a private body which seeks aggressively to enforce the
Intellectual Property Rights of its members who, in the UK, include Adobe,
Autodesk, Corel, Macromedia, Microsoft and Symantec. It is not a statutory
or regulatory body, and has no power to require anyone to complete its audit
form.
The Danger for YOUR Organisation
We would urge that you proceed with great caution in deciding whether or not
to complete the BSA's audit return.
The BSA's letter suggests that they want to work with the recipient to help
identify whether they have all the software licences they require. They
offer the carrot of issuing a "Certificate of Recognition" to anyone who
demonstrates good licensing practice. However, there is no suggestion of
any amnesty in relation to infringements which are identified. The BSA can
use information provided voluntarily by recipients of the audit returns as a
means of identifying infringement of their members' rights. Thus, by
returning the audit return in good faith you could simply be providing the
BSA with the evidence it needs to take action against you. Part of the
BSA's approach is to "name and shame" organisations found to have been using
unlicensed software, in addition to pursuing damages aggressively.
The Federation Against Software Theft (FAST), another organisation dedicated
to stamping out unlicensed use of software, has criticised the BSA's
approach.
So What Should You Do?
Unlicensed use of software is a very serious matter: it can result in civil
liability for damages and, potentially, criminal liability both for the
organisation using the software and for the officers of the organisation
such as directors, managers and company secretaries. It is vital that all
organisations carry out regular internal audits of the software used in
their organisation to ensure that it is all licensed. If unlicensed
software is identified, this should be rectified immediately. Identifying
unlicensed software, but doing nothing about it, could simply make matters
worse. Ultimately, you could be forced in court proceedings to hand over a
copy of any document that you have identifying unlicensed software to an
organisation such as the BSA.
A particular problem area to be aware of is the danger of acquiring
liability for unlicensed software on the acquisition of another business or
company.
We would advise all organisations to carry out a thorough internal audit of
their software licensing and to put procedures in place to ensure ongoing
compliance.
Recommendations
We would recommend that you do not return the BSA's audit form, but instead
send a short letter to the BSA stating that you are aware of the need to
ensure that your organisation does not use any unlicensed software and
(providing that this is the case) that you have procedures in place to
ensure that you do not use any unlicensed software.
If you wish to discuss any of the matters raised here, or any related
matters, please contact:
Sian Croxon, Partner ([log in to unmask], 020 7796 6270) or
Mark Lawry, Solicitor ([log in to unmask], 020 7796 6002),
or your regular DLA IP/IT contact
The contents of this email are confidential to the intended recipient at the
email address to which it has been addressed. It may not be disclosed to or
used by anyone other than this addressee, nor may it be copied in any way.
If received in error, please contact DLA, a UK law firm,
(http://www.dla.com/) on +44 (0) 8700 111111 quoting the name of the sender
and the addressee and then delete it from your system.
Please note that neither DLA nor the sender accepts any responsibility for
viruses and it is your responsibility to scan the email and attachments (if
any). No contracts may be concluded on behalf of DLA by means of email
communications.
A list of the names of the partners of DLA (who are either solicitors or
registered foreign lawyers) and their qualifications is available for
inspection at 3 Noble Street, London, EC2V 7EE, UK.
Regulated in England by the Law Society of England and Wales, and in
Scotland by the Law Society of Scotland; and authorised by these Societies
to conduct investment business.
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