From Soft Times to Hard Fines, Businesses will start to learn the Hard Way!
Business owners face fines or possible imprisonment over failure to operate legal software usage.
According to the Business Software Alliance (BSA), small UK businesses are ever more naive to the risks posed by the use of illegal software - not to mention the potential threat of viruses this can endeavour.
A recent survey of 1,800 businesses commissioned by the BSA found that 85% of SME’s did not realise the risk of viruses on unlicensed software whilst 41% claimed that they “believed” there was no risk involved.
Research also showed that 97% of SME’s were confident that their software was legal but around 27% of UK businesses are found to be using pirated software.
It is evident that the lack of understanding over the risk’s involved drives more and more businesses to try to capitalise from cracked software. Not only are there serious system operational risks, but business owners also face large financial penalties of unlimited fines or possible imprisonment for up to 10 years. Ram Dhaliwal, licensing programme manager for Microsoft UK and committee chair member of the BSA said: “…directors of many British businesses just don’t realise the risks of using illegal software. SME’s need to recognise that they could be susceptible to serious operational and IT risks, aside from the legal and financial consequences”. In 2006, businesses across Europe often faced fines of up to and over £10,000. One company actually faced over £90,000 in penalties due to software piracy.
Following the Gowers Independent Review of Intellectual Property, it has now become even easier for the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) to inspect businesses and enter premises without any warning. The review suggested giving Trading Standards the rights to enforce criminal copyright offences and that theft from over the internet should receive the same penalties as if it were theft from a shop. If agreed, business owners could face up to 10 years imprisonment and ongoing unlimited fines.
John Lovelock, director general of FAST states, “…if Trading Standards come knocking at your door, you will be liable for what they find…the effect of the review and the chancellor’s pre-budget report is that the risk to organisations which misuse software will be greatly increased…”
Proximitum urge business owners to stay conversant with software laws by providing an extremely cost effective alternative to guarantee the use of the latest software without the heavy costs involved. We can provide your business with fully licensed applications at a pay-as-you-go cost per month to ensure that your business software is fully legit at all times. If you have concerns or would like to know more about how Proximitum can help to protect your business, please feel free to give us a call today: 0845 686 9000