[FOSS-PDI] Fine unlicensed software users, says BSA

[Sunil Abraham]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/30/fine_software_pirates_says_bsa/

Lobby calls for 'harder enforcement stick'
By OUT-LAW.COM → More by this author
Published Wednesday 30th August 2006 08:54 GMT
 
Software industry lobby group the Business Software Alliance (BSA) has
called for government to mandate stiff penalties for companies using
unlicensed software.

The organisation says it wants a "harder enforcement stick" to ensure
compliance.

The group, which represents many major software publishers, says the
current legal regime is no disincentive to illegal users since those
operating without licence cannot be penalised in the civil courts. It
wants a punitive fine to be added to the cost of the purchase of a
licence for infringing products, said the body's counsel, Graham Arthur.

"When we get in touch with a company about software they don't have a
licence for we end up in a scrap because they go out and buy the
licences and say that that is the case settled," said Arthur. "With a
few wrinkles, that is more or less true. Judges in the UK court can't
impose punitive damages, except in certain specific cases.

"What would be useful would be a damages provision like the one in
Ireland which says that the judge can award whatever he feels like,
taking into account the circumstances and what is fair," said Arthur.
"We are certainly at the weak end of enforcement and to change behaviour
we need a harder enforcement stick."

Currently, any company which uses software without a licence and is
caught has to pay the licence fee that it ought to have paid in the
first place, though there are much tougher penalties for counterfeiters
actually trading in unlicensed software.

The body was not looking for the kind of punitive damages found
elsewhere which charge double the retail price of software in damages,
said Arthur, but the lack of a penalty for infringement was a major
factor in bolstering the UK's piracy figures. "As much as anything that
contributes to high rates of piracy in the UK," he said.

Arthur also said the BSA wanted the government to take more action to
educate the market on software licences. "You do hear from the
government that they are very supportive of intellectual property
rights, but that doesn't mean anything unless something is done," he
said.

The BSA earlier this year said around 80 per cent of the infringement
cases it comes across are down to negligence and not to malice, and said
that many firms neglected to keep software up to date in times of rapid
growth. Arthur suggested that these firms need to hear from the
government that they must ensure that their software licences are up to
date.

The government last year asked former Financial Times editor Andrew
Gowers to conduct a review of intellectual property and policy, and
Arthur said the BSA had made its views clear to that review.


-- 
Sunil Abraham   Manager sunil at apdip.net  www.iosn.net  
International Open Source Network - Software Freedom for All
Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme www.apdip.net
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