BSA promises more anti-piracy treasure
Organisation doubles reward offer for illegal software whistleblowers
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has doubled the potential reward for people who report the use of illegal software within UK businesses.
The BSA is now offering a reward of up to £20,000, twice the existing limit of £10,000, to anyone who reports illegal software usage in an organisation before the end of June. People can submit leads via www.bsa.org/uk/report - all those who report illegal use remain anonymous.
Siobhan Carroll, regional manager Northern Europe at the BSA, said: “By doubling the incentives for informants we are also effectively doubling the risk for businesses of getting caught out. Hopefully this will make software licensing a higher priority.”
Illegal software use, whether deliberate or accidental, is a major problem among businesses of all sizes in the UK, said the BSA. According to research house IDC, 27 per cent of software in use in UK businesses is illegal. This equates to losses of over £1bn to local and international software companies.
A ten-point cut in the piracy rate from 27 per cent to 17 per cent would generate £2.8bn in tax revenues for the UK government, which equates to over 80,000 policemen or 113,000 nurses .
The BSA provides free ‘health check’ and software auditing tools, tips and advice to help companies ensure software compliance and implement effective software asset management at www.justasksam.co.uk.