Press release
Business Software Alliance receives higher quantity of leads at the start of 2009
London (27th March 2009) - The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has been provided with more than 800 leads in January and February 2009 across the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, 8 per cent up compared to the start of 2008. The service industry has been identified as leading the trend, followed by the architectural/design, sales/distribution, engineering, manufacturing, and graphics sectors respectively.
Julian Swan, Director, Compliance Marketing, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Business Software Alliance, said: "There is a very real risk that businesses will get caught out using unlicensed software. We receive over 100 leads a week and that's in addition to raids and criminal investigations carried out independently by the police across EMEA. With the financial crisis in full swing, ex-employees recently made redundant might be attracted by the financial incentive to report their former employers for Illegal software practices. The only way to avoid an investigation and the unwelcome attention of the law is scrupulous diligence to software licensing rules."
By having fully-licensed software, businesses are entitled to support, services, patches, and upgrades from the software provider, further protecting them from viruses, data loss, and other operational risks. Publicly being caught using unlicensed software can result in reputational damage for companies, potentially affecting clients and contracts, as well as risking legal action. Confidential reports can be made to the BSA at www.bsa.org.
