BSA settles largest piracy case to date

Global settlement with international media firm follows year-long investigation

Software piracy watchdog the Business Software Alliance (BSA) has agreed a €2.5m global settlement with an international media firm over unlicensed software.

The settlement against the firm, which cannot be named for legal reasons folllowed a criminal complaint made last year by the BSA on behalf of Adobe, Autodesk, Avid and Microsoft.

During the investigation the organisation had its premises raided by the police and its assets frozen. Its PCs were searched for unlicensed software during the raids. Part of the settlement included the firm deleting all unlicensed software and purchasing the correct licenses.

A source at the organisation, said: "This situation came about because we relied on a single individual to keep us compliant and manage our software assets across multiple-locations during a period of significant expansion. The management were shocked at the scale of the situation and recognise that by having software management processes and tools in place this could have been avoided.”

Robert Holleyman, chief executive of BSA said: “This action demonstrates BSA’s global footprint and the integrated and coordinated efforts of our global license compliance campaigns. BSA member company software was core to this company’s business and yet it failed to manage this vital business asset. This action brings the organisation into compliance with the copyright laws but at a significantly higher cost than if it had software asset management processes in place to begin with.”

“Sadly it is the BSA’s experience that companies undergoing periods of rapid growth, as in this case, can overlook software licensing issues," he added. " Software is critical to this organisation’s business, so it is vital to have genuine licensed versions to ensure its customers and staff benefit fully. This case clearly indicates that prevention is better than cure for everyone.”