FAST settles with under-licensed hospital

Whistle-blowing campaign leads to £13,000 settlement

John Lovelock: Anyone who thinks that FAST is an organisation without clout needs to think again

The Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) claims its £13,000 settlement with an under-licensed NHS Trust hospital shows it has genuine teeth.

The settlement, which related to the under-licensing of terminal emulation software made by FAST vendor partner Esker, came as a direct result of a recent whistle blowing campaign.

FAST emphasised the Sheffield-based hospital in question worked closely to resolve its under licensing issues and paid the outstanding amount in full.

Channel firms may be more familiar with the Business Software Alliance’s (BSA) fight against under-licensed UK organisations but FAST chief executive John Lovelock argued FAST’s efforts should not be dismissed lightly.

“Anyone who thinks that FAST is an organisation without clout needs to think again,” he said. “This case came to us as a direct result of our recent whistle-blowing campaign and we worked with Sheffield Trading Standards to investigate the claim.”

Alistair Nicholas, Esker's Northern European sales manager, said: “Since we joined FAST it has been instrumental in the recovery of revenue at a number of sites, mostly to do with under licensing. There is no doubt in my mind that working in conjunction with FAST greatly enhanced our ability to protect the interests of the Esker solutions.”

David Whitham, informatics director at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We take our obligations very seriously and we would never knowingly use unlicensed software. This was a genuine error which we resolved very quickly as soon as we became aware of the situation.”