Paying out to punish pirates

Would you shop your boss or supplier for £20,000?

Yirrell: It could be an expensive Christmas for those who fall foul of the BSA

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is hoping its latest sweetener ­ -- double its original £10,000 offer ­ -- will tempt more people to 'fess up about firms using unlicensed or illegal software.

This is expected to be particularly appealing to cash-strapped firms desperate to keep their business afloat -- £20,000 is a lot of money.

According to IDC’s figures, the UK piracy rate is at 26 per cent, costing our industry billions in lost revenue opportunities ­ both through licence sales and services revenue.

It is not always deliberate piracy. I myself fell victim to an unscrupulous reseller many years ago who hard-disk loaded a copy of Windows 98 onto my newly built (by him) machine.

When things went wrong shortly after, and he had conveniently gone out of business, I took it to a more reputable brand name and was reprimanded.

Luckily by then I had got hold of a proper copy of the software so I avoided any repercussions.

Of course, there are also the firms that knowingly use or sell unlicensed or illegal software in the hope of saving money.

If this campaign is successful they could be in for an expensive Christmas.

Sara Yirrell is editor of CRN ­. Contact her at [email protected]