Aussie businesses still using pirated software

Australian businesses appear to be continuing their use of pirated software unabated, with commercial software industry group BSA | The Software Alliance revealing it has settled seven cases this year alone.

The seven cases combined yielded settlements totalling $147,000, Computerworld Australia reported. The unnamed defendants hail from the architectural, engineering and manufacturing industries.

By way of comparison, the BSA settled 12 cases in Australia last year totalling damages of $825,000.

“Last year saw a total of 12 businesses in breach of copyright law, and we are not seeing any indication of settlements slowing in 2015,” Roland Chan, BSA senior director for compliance programs Asia-Pacific, said.

“Organisations that knowingly use unlicensed software for commercial gain are getting an unfair advantage to the detriment of the market, and are doing a disservice to their customers and partners.”

He noted that a recent study conducted for the BSA by IDC demonstrated that businesses using unlicensed software are also exposing themselves to greater risk of data loss from malware attacks.

To mitigate the threat, the BSA recommends businesses implement software compliance policies that involve logging all software deployed in the business.

Organisations can also consider conducting regular employee workshops and software audits, and implementing a software asset management program to ensure the organisation remains in compliance.

Image courtesy of Steve Jurvetson under CC