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| NovaLogic fined $153,000 for illegal software |
| Friday, December 09, 2005 at 18:42 by Rich Kavanagh |
The Business Software Alliance (BSA), a watchdog group representing the nation's leading software manufacturers, today announced that NovaLogic, Inc., developer and global publisher of games for personal computers, PlayStation and Xbox consoles, with offices in Calabasas, CA, paid BSA a total of $153,500 to settle claims that they had unlicensed copies of software programs installed on office computers.
In addition to making their payment, the company agreed to delete any unlicensed copies of software, purchase replacement software and strengthen their software management practices.
NovaLogic paid BSA the $153,500 fine after an audit revealed that it had unlicensed Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, FileMaker, Macromedia, Microsoft and Symantec software programs on its computers. Most investigations begin with a call to BSA's hotline, 1-888-NO PIRACY, or with a report to BSA's Online Reporting Form. BSA's attorneys contacted the organization, which cooperated and conducted audits.
Lee Milligan, president of NovaLogic commented,
"NovaLogic, Inc. is committed to full compliance with software licensing requirements. As a software developer, our organization depends on respect for our intellectual property rights. NovaLogic regrets the inadvertent violation of license agreements and is committed to rigorous respect for the intellectual property rights of others."
Jenny Blank, director of enforcement for BSA said,
"Since BSA's founding more than 17 years ago, there have been significant advances in combating unlicensed software use. However, software piracy in the workplace is still pervasive. It is BSA's hope that its rewards program will provide people with the encouragement they need to do the right thing and report software piracy in their current or former workplace confidentially."
An independent study shows that 21% of software in the United States is unlicensed. Last year, the U.S. lost $6.6 billion as a result of software piracy.
Businesses trying to determine whether their organization is using unlicensed software can download the free software audit tools at http://www.bsaaudit.com
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| Am I alone in thinking that this "Report your company for cash" tactic stinks of something we had earlier in Europe where individuals were encouraged to "Report your neighbours" for anything that didn't fit in with what the bosses wanted? "Trust no-one, report everyone" is the manta today.
It's only software guys. The US lost $6.6 billion as a result of software piracy in one year. How many billions did they actually make? How many software millionaires have been created over the last 20 years? And how much is Joe/Jane Public being charged for programs that run on code that was written years ago?
How much of that $6.6 billion would tax have been paid on by BSA members, I wonder? And how much would have been filtered to tax havens offshore or wasted in tax loss investments?
Make the software affordable and the need for "inadvertent violation of license agreements" disappears. I've just about stopped buying software, and I've no need to pirate any either. I either wait 12 months and the companies can't discount it fast enough, or look for Open Source. So BullS*itAlliance, you know where you can stick your overpriced and overhyped dots and digits, don't you? |
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| Stop trying to justify piracy (you making money off piracy in china or some other developing nation?).
It is especially sick in this circumstance...because novalogic places copy protection on its disks.
Novalogics ethics:
Don't you dare steal our stuff but we are free to steal everything we use.
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| Hello. What part of " I've just about stopped buying software, and I've no need to pirate any either." makes you think I'm justifying piracy?
I'm just sick of multinationals pleading poverty while making millions from selling software that contains large portions of code "borrowed" from other programs.
I'm just sick of multinationals who write deliberately lengthy caveats in 2 point text that won't let me install the software I've already paid for until I agree that if they screw up my pc by not writing the code correctly, then its all my fault for installing it!
I'm just sick of multinationals who try to install spyware on my pc in the name of "anti-piracy". Then deny it's their fault, that they exposed my pc to hackers who could have lifted all sorts of personal info without my knowledge or permission.
I'm just sick of multinationals trying to get others to spy on what I do legally. THEY steal, my rights, my info, my peace of mind, so that they can make more money in a day than I'll see in my entire life, work as hard as I may. So sorry, I don't care for piracy, but I don't care about it either! |
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| I've found another company like BSA :
http://www.licence-protection.com/
It seems it's the same case in Europe.. |
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