WASHINGTON, May 5 The Business Software Alliance (BSA), the voice of the world's commercial software industry, today announced a settlement with Associated Healthcare, a home medical equipment provider based out of Amherst, NY. Associated Healthcare paid $50,000 to BSA to settle claims that it had unlicensed copies of Adobe, Microsoft and Symantec software installed on its computers. As part of the settlement agreement, the company agreed to delete all unlicensed copies of software from its computers, acquire any licenses necessary to become compliant and commit to implementing stronger software asset management (SAM) practices. BSA was alerted to the unlicensed software use by a confidential report made on its web site www.nopiracy.com.
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"Associated Healthcare worked fully with BSA in resolving any issues of unlicensed software use," said Peter Storey, president of Associated Healthcare Systems, Inc. "The audit performed by Associated Healthcare has permitted our organization to implement processes that will assure that software licensing issues do not resurface. Associated Healthcare did not admit any liability by entering into this settlement. This settlement was the compromise of a disputed claim."
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"All businesses need to be certain they have adequate licenses for all software installed on their computers," said Jenny Blank, BSA's senior director of legal affairs. "Unfortunately, many companies often find themselves paying a much higher price down the road through either legal damages or through exposing sensitive company information to the extensive risks that stem from using pirated software."
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About BSA
The Business Software Alliance (www.bsa.org) is the foremost organization dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world. BSA is the voice of the world's commercial software industry and its hardware partners before governments and in the international marketplace. Its members represent one of the fastest growing industries in the world. BSA programs foster technology innovation through education and policy initiatives that promote copyright protection, cyber security, trade and e-commerce. BSA members include Adobe, Altium, Apple, Autodesk, Aveva, Bentley Systems, Corel, Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corporation, Microsoft, Minitab, Progress Software, Quark, Quest Software, Rosetta Stone, Siemens, Sybase, Symantec, and The MathWorks.
2007 New York Piracy Rate* 20% Losses to New York Software Vendors $673 million Losses to New York Distributors/ Service Providers $1.7 billion Lost State and Local Tax Revenue (NY) $344 million 2008 U.S. Piracy Rate 20% 2008 U.S. Losses to Software Industry $9.1 billion vs. 2007 -1% 32,000 new jobs; $41 billion in Benefits of reducing piracy by 10 economic growth; $7 billion in tax percentage points over 4 years** revenue 2008 Global Piracy Rate 41% 2008 Worldwide Losses to Software Industry $53.0 Billion vs. 2007 +3% *2008 BSA-IDC State Piracy Study **Sixth-Annual BSA-IDC Global Software Piracy Study
SOURCE Business Software Alliance
