Software industry lobby group the Business Software Alliance (BSA) has called for government to mandate stiff penalties for companies using unlicensed software.
The organisation says it wants a “harder enforcement stick” to ensure compliance.
The group, which represents many major software publishers, says the current legal regime is no disincentive to illegal users since those operating without licence cannot be penalised in the civil courts. It wants a punitive fine to be added to the cost of the purchase of a licence for infringing products, said the body’s counsel, Graham Arthur.
“When we get in touch with a company about software they don’t have a licence for we end up in a scrap because they go out and buy the licences and say that that is the case settled,” said Arthur. “With a few wrinkles, that is more or less true. Judges in the UK court can’t impose punitive damages, except in certain specific cases.
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