BSA bags insurance firm payout

Anti-piracy body nabs insurance company for alleged software licence misuse

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has ordered a Stoke-on-Trent-based insurance firm to pay up £3,000 in settlement fees for allegedly using unlicensed software.

The anti-piracy body has also instructed Autonet Insurance Services to make corrective software purchases, after a BSA investigation suggested the firm was using unlicensed products.

The BSA claimed the probe also led to Autonet deploying a software asset management tool to ensure its software estate is compliant in future.

Phillipe Briére, chair of the BSA UK Committee, said settlement fees are not the only risk businesses face by using unlicensed software.

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

"This could expose a company to data loss, file corruption and downtime – all of which could harm the bottom-line of any company."

Julian Swan, director of compliance marketing EMEA at BSA, added: "The use of unlicensed software is not always deliberate and mistakes tend to happen when a company's management perceives software licensing as an IT problem, without recognising that failure to manage software properly could expose their company to legal redress."