Compliance Toolkit
Story: UK firm fined £250,000 over unlicensed software
Good points
Yes, it is confusing and your points are essentially correct. The BSA is an independent organisation and not a company and you are right that it has no legal right to sue anybody. Instead it works with, and has the co-operation of, software vendors on whose behalf it was set up in the first place.
When the BSA is made aware of a possible infringement of software copyright, especially a large one, it will launch an investigation. This begins as a result of the BSA receiving inside information from somebody working at a company where they know software is being used without the proper licenses being obtained and fees being paid.
There are now laws governing infringement of copyright of software. These are civil law cases - you are perfectly correct - and not criminal ones. No-one is going to jail. However, fines - strictly speaking, damages - are payable. They can be enormous as in this unique case. The BSA will require the companies caught in this way to pay up but the money will go to the software vendors who have been cheated of the payments.
Can companies and individuals refuse to pay? Yes, they can and they do. These cases will often be kept quiet by the BSA and the vendors for obvious reasons. They would much rather show people being caught and fined than show them getting away with using software without the correct licensing in place. However, the laws introduced around areas like copyright do make it more difficult for people and companies to avoid legal proceedings.
Apologies if my loose use of legal terminology created any confusion here.
Colin Barker
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