BSA report bashed as body accused of 'missing the point'

Recent BSA research claims correct licensing benefits the economy, but License Dashboard accuses anti-piracy body of losing focus

License Dashboard has rubbished claims made by the BSA that correct software licensing can boost the UK economy by £1.53bn, claiming the organisation has "missed the point".

Earlier this week, a study from the BSA and business school INSEAD showed that the use of correctly licensed software would boost the UK economy alone by £1.53bn. The pair reckons a one per cent boost in the use of licensed software would generate £2bn in national production, compared to the £470m which would be produced from the same increase in pirated software.

License Dashboard today bashed the BSA, questioning its figures and accusing it of overcomplicating the issue.

Matt Fisher, sales and marketing director at the software asset management (SAM) tools vendor, said software managers want to ensure their own companies are compliant before they consider the wider consequences.

He said: "Making highfalutin claims as to the economic benefits of non-pirated software will do very little to cut piracy. It is firms, not abstract economies, that need to be shown the value of software since they are the ones that actually use it... And frankly, who cares? Economists might, but do software managers? Probably not."

"[We] would all benefit in the long run from UK GDP going up, but it is a very long and complicated argument. The BSA is overcomplicating things and should get back to the roots. [The BSA should focus on] why organisations should manage their software.

"It is also about making sure [users] are not spending too much money, but the BSA misses this a lot of the time. There seems to be a perception that they do not want to talk about the fact people can spend less on licensing [with correct SAM] because it does not suit their vendors. But if you spend less on software A, you spend more on software B – it is a net win for the software industry."

Fisher added that the BSA's report left him confused and that he was unsure about how it arrived at its figures.

When License Dashboard's claims were put to the BSA, its director of compliance marketing, Julian Swan, said the firm "stood by the study's rigour".

Driven by threat

Kelway's SAM manager Gareth Johnson said the BSA's claims will not drive users to become more compliant.

"When you look at £1.6bn, it's a huge amount of money, but it will never be a driver [for licence compliance]. Most organisations only look at SAM when faced with an audit, but it is just a matter of getting compliant," he added.

"The BSA still carries weight as the UK market is still driven by threat and everyone should share the [economic] concerns, but I can see where License Dashboard is coming from."

Sofcat's SAM manager Matt Ward said the BSA does a good job of enforcing good practice among end users, and that he thinks it is important to consider both the local and wider economic benefits of having compliant software.