BSA stings seating firm

Latest settlement comes hot on heels of Kaspersky Labs' decision to leave the organisation

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has reached a settlement with yet another UK firm caught using unlicensed software.

Slick Seating Systems incurred costs of £11,000 after a tip-off from a whistleblower prompted the BSA to initiate an investigation into its software usage.

The sum includes settlement costs and expenditure on software licences to ensure the grandstand seating firm was compliant.

Philippe Briѐre, chairman of the UK Committee at the BSA - whose members include Microsoft, SAP, Symantec and Adobe - said Slick Seating Systems was "very co-operative" throughout the settlement process.

He added: "Unfortunately, businesses continually fall into the trap of thinking that cutting corners on software will save them money. In fact, the opposite is often true."

On another note, the BSA has expressed its disappointment at Kaspersky Labs' decision to leave the organisation following a disagreement over its support of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

In a blog post, the anti-virus vendor's founder Eugene Kaspersky criticised the BSA for "blindly supporting SOPA while ignoring any other point of view".

Katherine McGuire, vice president of government relations at the BSA, said: "We are very disappointed to learn that Kaspersky Labs may not renew their membership in BSA, especially given we share many of their concerns over SOPA.

"Kaspersky has been a valued member of BSA over the past two years, and we look forward to working with them again in the future."