Pirates have been in the news a lot lately, what with the recent Pirate Bay court ruling and the Somali pirates.

It has been argued that using the term ‘piracy’ to describe the illegal use of digital data is in poor taste. But what is the best way to describe the illegal use – some would call it theft – of digital materials?

Richard Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Network, reportedly prefers the terms ‘unauthorised copying’ or ‘prohibited copying’. But, while accurate, these terms lack the impact of the word ‘piracy’.

Stephen Dubner, author of Freakonomics, prefers ‘dobbery’ – the contraction of ‘digital robbery’.

The fact is that software, music, movie and games vendors are still losing huge sums of money because organisations and consumers are not paying for all the digital content they use.

In the context of software licensing, compliance and, in its broader sense, software asset management (SAM), illegal use within organisations is mainly about a systematic failure to properly manage software rather than deliberate abuse.

Yet such use will still be targeted both by software vendors and the authorities. This, however, appears to be doing little to motivate businesses to fix their software licensing as many IT managers still don’t know exactly what software exists on their network.

Perhaps resellers should focus on the cost savings that SAM can deliver to organisations immediately, rather than the threat of fines and the like.

Organisations should aim for the most return from their technological investments. Purse-strings are tighter and decision makers may yet cut costs across the business. Cost savings should be a welcome incentive to any organisation.

Not having complete visibility of software assets means businesses may overspend on software in various ways.

Firstly, organisations that do not make the most of the renewal and maintenance agreements they have with their existing software providers may pay more than they should.

Secondly, they may buy duplicate or replacement copies of various applications. Lastly, if employees can download their own software to a corporate network, this can put companies out of compliance – as, for example, staff when downloading may tick the box to agree to the ‘personal use’ licence terms rather than those for businesses.

Research in the UK last year found that organisations were in fact over-spending on purchasing and maintaining software by about 20 per cent.

Talk of copyright theft is doing nothing to encourage businesses to comply. Maybe the way to get executives serious about managing their software investments is not to accuse them of being pirates but money wasters.

Matt Fisher is director of Centennial products at FrontRange Solutions