Don't overcomplicate the piracy issue

Matt Fisher says more progress would be made by underlining the potential savings

Anti-piracy group the Business Software Alliance (BSA) has claimed that legal software delivers more economic benefit than pirated software.

This represents a missed opportunity. The BSA has an important role to play in encouraging better management of software, but I fear that arguments such as these fail to resonate with the very organisations it is trying to reach.

Use the economic arguments for lobbyist activities and to gain political support, by all means, but keep things simple for organisations that need to worry about software licensing.

I would like to see more focus from the BSA on how organisations can ensure they meet the legal requirements associated with software licensing while also guarding against unnecessary expenditure and administrative overheads.

Very few businesses will be persuaded to take a fresh look at their software management practices because they have been told the UK economy will do better because of it.

Yet when those same organisations understand how software asset management can reduce their annual software costs, they are more inclined to listen.

That would lead inevitably to better licensing practices - and indeed, lower piracy rates.

If organisations learned that a simple oversight in the management of their virtualised servers could be exposing their organisation to a massive software licencing shortfall, they would take note.

Implementing a routine of re-harvesting unused software licences every 90 days could save them thousands of pounds every month. These are more compelling arguments than focusing on the UK's macroeconomic situation.

The BSA has the expertise and much of the knowledge required to help organisations achieve both compliance and cost savings.

This needs to come to the fore, taking precedence over arguments that suggest the BSA is not in tune with the challenges facing UK organisations.

While it is true that we would all benefit from a rise in UK GDP, and I understand where the BSA is coming from, it makes a very long and complicated argument that simply fails to resonate with those who matter.

The BSA is overcomplicating things and should go back to its roots: raising awareness of the financial implications of non-compliance while highlighting the financial rewards of proactive software asset management.

Matt Fisher is business development director at License Dashboard