IT departments need software compliance officer: BSAA

Key to avoiding piracy, losing track of licences

Having a member of an IT department responsible for software asset management is vital if businesses are to avoid mistakenly using pirated software or losing track of licences.

Arguing the case for a software compliance officer, co-chair of the Business Software Alliance of Australia (BSAA), Clayton Noble, said while some organisations intentionally used of pirated software and infringed software licences, a lack of organisation and proper record management was resulting in some organisations unintentionally breaching copyright laws.

“Some organisations just have no idea what they are doing and nobody is checking if they are paying for licences,” he said. “Having somebody in an IT department who is responsible for software asset management and centralising the software acquisition function is one of the most basic things that people we come across come to see as important.”

In an effort to curb the unintentional infringing of licences and the use of pirate software, Noble said the BSAA would provide educational tools for companies struggling with software compliance.

“As well as enforcing offences, we also have all sorts of tools and information that’s clearly available for organisations and businesses to make sure you’re compliant with your licences. We have software asset management in place to allow businesses to understand their use of licences,” he said.

As reported by Computerworld Australia the news follows the BSAA's increasing its reward for reporting software piracy from $5,000 to $20,000 during September and October.

The BSA works with around 24 members in Australia, and settled 12 cases locally last year.

More about: BSAA, Business Software Alliance, Noble
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Comments

1

Just Another Penguin

Wed 15/09/2010 - 14:34

Software compliance officer

Some years ago I worked for a large insurance company that supposedly had such an officer. When I discovered that evaluation copies of TextPad were being continuously used in contravention of the license, I informed the software compliance officer. Result? Nothing. Simply appointing someone to a toothless symbolic role will achieve nothing, but then maybe that's the idea.

2

Rob Harmer

Wed 08/12/2010 - 20:17

Sorry, I have to vigorously disagree. Until such time as the software licences are significantly easier to manage and better written in unambiguous clear language then the cost burden of doing this will NOT be met by the end user organisation.

Reward schemes do not promote responsible behaviour by industry. Its an un-Australian way of doing business to dob in the boss, who is unable to control how software and fonts (also subject to licencing) is deployed, installed and updated on systems despite what the software vendors think. The licences in some cases are misleading and deceptive in some cases.

It's time the BSA actually did something besides education and punishment.

Software licences need to be simplified http://www.pcprofile.com/Software_Licenses_Need_To_Be_Simplified.htm and software delivered in a manner that an organisation can control what is installed and what is modified and until such time as this occurs then BSA and Microsoft are whistling. The amount of money they have wasted on this issue over the years is horrifyingly large and the amount of money being wasted by business and government sites on in-effective campaigns exceeds this by a significant multiplier value that we can only hazard a guess at.

Come On Microsoft, you can do much better then this to solve the problem. PIck up the phone and ring me and we will tell you how to fix the issue.

Rob Harmer
PCProfile
Adelaide South Australia
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Fax +61 (0) 8 8265 1961
mailto:pcprofile@internode.on.net
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3

The Boss

Wed 08/12/2010 - 22:46

There is great need for a sarcasm font - author unknown

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