Three companies pay software licensing settlements
A stock brokerage firm and two mortgage companies have agree to pay a total
of more than $420,000 to settle claims that they had unlicensed software on
their computers, the Business
Software Alliance (BSA) said Tuesday.
The settlements with the three companies also require them to delete all unlicensed
copies of software installed on their computers, acquire any needed licenses
and implement stronger software licensing management practices, the BSA said.
Brokerage firm IBG
of Chicago agreed to pay $175,000 to settle claims that it was using unlicensed
copies of Microsoft
and Symantec
software, BSA said. American
Mortgage Consultants of Liberty, Illinois, paid $136,750 to settle claims
that it had fewer licenses than it had copies of Adobe
and Microsoft software on its computers. NovaStar
Mortgage of Kansas City, Missouri, paid $112,000 to settle claims that it
had unlicensed copies of Adobe, Autodesk
and Symantec software on its computers.
Representatives of none of the three companies responded immediately to a request
for comments.
"American Mortgage Consultants regrets that this situation arose,"
David Leahy, the company's CEO said in the BSA news release. "There has
now been a change in the management team and AMC is therefore confident that
this matter is behind it."
Later Tuesday, BSA announced that three New York state companies have agreed
to pay a total of $269,000 to settle similar claims.
Overseas Media, based in New York City, paid more than $115,000 to settle claims
that it had unlicensed copies of Adobe, Autodesk, Microsoft and Symantec software.
Vecta Industries of Long Island City paid $99,000 to settle claims that it had
unlicensed Adobe, Microsoft and Symantec software. Ellery Homestyles of New
York City paid $55,000 to settle claims that it had unlicensed Adobe and Microsoft
software.
BSA, a trade group representing several IT vendors, said it is committed to
enforcing its members' copyrights. "We wish it weren't necessary, but enforcing
copyrights has proven to be the best way to encourage businesses to review their
installed software and take any steps necessary to become compliant," Jenny
Blank, BSA's senior director of legal affairs, said in a statement.
Businesses trying to determine whether their organization is using unlicensed
software can download software audit tools from the BSA Web site at bsaaudit.com.
BSA offers rewards of up to $1 million for confidential reports of unlicensed
software use. Actual rewards are usually much smaller.
IDG News Service
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