BSA swoops on Northern Irish firm

Medical equipment maker forced to stump up £12,000 as it reaches settlement with anti-piracy body

Michala Wardell: Using unlicensed software is a false economy

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has repeated its message that using unlicensed software is a "false economy", after reaching a settlement with another UK firm.

Northern Irish medical equipment maker Armstrong Medical was saddled with total costs of £12,000 after it was caught using unlicensed copies of BSA-member software. The figure included settlement fees and the cost of becoming compliant.

According to the latest joint BSA and IDC study, the UK software piracy rate in 2009 stood at 27 per cent – no improvement on the previous year.

Michala Wardell, chair of the BSA UK Committee, stressed that settlement costs are only one potential consequence of unlicensed software use.

“Unlicensed software will often not benefit from the services, support and upgrades that are provided by software publishers and that help protect against security vulnerabilities,” she said.

“This could expose a company to data loss, file corruption and downtime – all of which could harm the bottom-line of any company, big or small. Using unlicensed software is a false economy.”

Wardell emphasised that Armstrong Medical was very cooperative throughout the settlement process.