In 2016 BSA received 230 reports in South Africa alleging the use of unlicensed software products of BSA member companies.
Most of these reports came via BSA’s No Piracy portal from current or former employees, detailing the amount of software installed without the appropriate license coverage.
“Software piracy negatively impacts software publishers and creates unfair competition for legitimate companies.
But, more than that, it exposes organisations to legal, financial and reputational damage through security breaches and data loss, not to mention the negative economic impacts through job losses and lost tax revenue,” says Darren Olivier, partner at Adams & Adams, legal counsel for BSA.
In one case presided over by BSA, an architecture firm Zulu Architectural Designers was found using unlicensed software of BSA members and is set to pay over R100,000 in damages.
In another case, a telecommunications firm Comsol operating out of Midrand paid nearly R80,000 in damages for copyright infringement. Ultimately, both companies paid more to use unlicensed software than they would have paid if they had initially used legitimate licenses.
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Source - IT News Africa