Key Components of Software Audit Response Policies

Christopher Barnett  Comments (0)
Software audits are significant legal and financial risks for all companies. With more and more software publishers utilizing intrusive audits and other information-gathering exercises as the basis for licensing transactions and – more troublingly – as sources of rev......

How to Conduct a Software Audit

Christopher Barnett  Comments (0)
[caption id="attachment_5534" align="alignnone" width="614"] Fundamentals of Software Audit Data Collection[/caption]   One of the tasks with which Scott & Scott’s clients most commonly request our assistance is how to conduct a software audit. While almost ......

Top Three Tips to Ensure Software Compliance

Keli Johnson Swan  Comments (0)
Companies facing copyright infringement claims from software publishers or their representatives have few options to navigate an audit and resolve the matter out of court. The costly nature of a software audit has prompted companies to take pre-emptive steps to avoid exp......

Attempts to Transfer Microsoft Licenses May be Ineffective

Rob Scott  Comments (0)
Like most software publishers, Microsoft includes terms in its standard license agreements to restrict a licensee’s ability to resell or otherwise assign to another party the right to install or use software. Increasing the level of difficulty for IT groups trying to m......

Unlimited License Agreements for Oracle Products

Julie Machal-Fulks  Comments (0)
Technology departments are continuously looking for ways to reduce costs related to software. Many larger enterprises are considering licensing software products on an enterprise-wide basis. For Oracle products, an unlimited license agreement (“ULA”) approach can be ......

Autodesk Audits: Managing Independent Contractors

Keli Johnson Swan  Comments (0)
Autodesk, Inc. uses a variety of resources to identify potential audit targets. Many of these targets are small architecture or engineering firms that employ independent contractors in lieu of full time employees as CAD operators. A typical Autodesk software audit let......

How to Resolve an SIIA Audit Followed by a BSA Audit

Keli Johnson Swan  Comments (0)
Sometimes a company receives notices of audits from many publishers or trade associations at the same time. Often this is because multiple agencies have received confidential reports from the same informant. If a current or previous employee contacts both the Software &a......

Treat Audit Demands Like A Litigation Hold Letter

Keli Johnson Swan  Comments (0)
Software publishers are regularly auditing customers to ensure compliance with license agreements, and may initiate audits directly, or through entities such as BSA|The Software Alliance, and the Software & Information Industry Association ("SIIA"). These entities se......

What is a Microsoft SPLA Verified Self-Audit?

Rob Scott  Comments (0)
If you provide commercial hosting services using Microsoft’s Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA), you may become a target of an ever-increasing variety of license audits from Microsoft and its vendors.  The latest flavor of a Microsoft SPLA audit is the verified s......

Autodesk Targets Architects In Software Audits

Keli Johnson Swan  Comments (0)
Autodesk routinely conducts software audits to determine whether businesses have unlicensed copies of its software installed on their computers. Architecture firms typically represent a significant portion of the targets of such audits – many such firms are heavily relia......

An Audit by Another Name: IBM’s new IASP Program

Julie Machal-Fulks  Comments (0)
This year, IBM announced that it was going to present certain customers with the opportunity to participate in its new IBM Authorized SAM Partner Services (“IASP”).  In a recent webinar that it co-presented with KPMG, one of its approved IASP partners, IBM described t......

Be Wary of Certain ISV and Embedded Software Agreements

Christopher Barnett  Comments (0)
It is common for software solution providers to use third-party products to support the functionalities those providers have developed for their solutions. For example, a network-monitoring solution may incorporate IBM Cognos functionality, or an accounting solution may in......

Avoid Oracle ULA Termination Risks

Christopher Barnett  Comments (0)
Many software publishers recognize that perpetual licenses should be, true to their name, perpetual, and that unless you violate the terms of the licenses they should remain in effect forever. As the licensee, you may not want to use that Microsoft Office 97 license you ......

Hosting Oracle Software Carries Risks

Christopher Barnett  Comments (0)
The software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution-delivery model is becoming more and more widespread. Developers of all kinds of software solutions – products covering everything from office productivity, design, accounting, CRM, business intelligence and more – increasingl......

Even in The Cloud – Keep an Eye on Software Licensing

Christopher Barnett  Comments (0)
There are many good reasons that businesses often cite in seeking to transition their IT operations to a vendor-delivered Cloud environment. It’s scalable. It’s more reliable and secure than what the business may be able to deliver for itself. It’s (often) cheaper......

Consult with Counsel for SPLA Audits

Rob Scott  Comments (0)
Microsoft’s Services Provider License Agreement (“SPLA”) is a popular licensing framework for businesses delivering hosted or rented software solutions to their customers. However, as with many software license agreements pertaining to resale or other business chan......

Unpleasant Surprises in BSA & SIIA Software Audits

Christopher Barnett  Comments (0)
Many companies who comply with a demand by a software publisher or industry association (such as the BSA or the SIIA) for an internal software audit end up facing significant settlement demands after forwarding their audit materials to the other side. One of the reasons ......

Oracle Licensing: Hard Partitioning and Disaster Recovery

Stephen F. Pinson  Comments (0)
When licensing Oracle products, many businesses fail to understand the licensing requirements for virtual technologies and disaster recovery.  These licensing mistakes can result in significant unbudgeted expenses related to Oracle software licensing. (1) Virtualization ......

Oracle Audit Risks

Christopher Barnett  Comments (0)
Oracle maintains what I consider to be the most aggressive audit program of any major software publisher. Its licensing rules can be extremely difficult to understand, and they frequently are not clearly stated in the applicable license agreements. Moreover, Oracle’s L......

Responding to the Dreaded Software Audit

Rob Scott  Comments (0)
Modern financial history is chock full of embarrassing audit scandals, which caused executives and corporate brand names severe damage from intentional fabrication of revenues, or creating imaginary profits, or claiming assets that turn out to be a mirage. There’s a new......

Audits in the Cloud

Rob Scott  Comments (0)
Traditionally, software audits were conducted by gaining access to software installations and reviewing entitlements. Theoretically, if a customer is using a cloud product accessed by login credentials, then audits wouldn’t be an issue because the software publisher wo......

Are Mandatory Software Inventory Tools on the Horizon?

Christopher Barnett  Comments (0)
Software licensing compliance is a complex task to manage. The metrics for measuring compliance often are a challenge to gather, and those metrics typically are different from software publisher to software publisher. This means that software asset management (SAM) teams nee......

Software Piracy

Rob Scott  Comments (0)
Software piracy audits conducted by the BSA and the SIIA threaten small and medium sized businesses. As the economy tightens, software publishers such as Microsoft, Adobe, and Autodesk hide behind software piracy enforcement groups to pursue customers accused of installing m......

Microsoft Clarifies Rules Related to Self-Hosting

Christopher Barnett  Comments (0)
I previously presented my thoughts here regarding changes Microsoft made to its Product Terms pertaining to the Self-Hosted Applications benefit under Software Assurance. After publishing that entry, Microsoft reached out to me to clarify that the principal effect of the ch......

Responding to Autodesk Audits

Julie Machal-Fulks  Comments (0)
The BSA and SIIA are not the only organizations pursuing business for software copyright infringement. Though it is a member of both the BSA and SIIA, Autodesk, which manufactures the popular design software AutoCAD, often pursues audit targets on its own. The audits begi......

Top Tips for Responding to an Autodesk Audit

Keli Johnson Swan  Comments (0)
Autodesk routinely sends letters to businesses that it suspects may be using Autodesk software products without adequate licensing, both in order to confirm those suspicions as well as to address any license-compliance discrepancies. Typically under threat of a federal lawsu......

Is Microsoft Trying to Kill Self-Hosting?

Christopher Barnett  Comments (0)
Earlier this year, with no fanfare (which is perhaps unsurprising), Microsoft implemented a significant change to its Product Terms pertaining to Software Assurance (SA) benefits that likely will have a significant licensing impact for companies that have taken advantage of ......

Software Audits: Surviving Settlement

Keli Johnson Swan  Comments (0)
Software auditing entities, such as the Business Software Alliance (“BSA”) and Software & Information Industry Association (“SIIA”), initiate software audits of businesses that more often than not result in a settlement agreed to and negotiated by both parties. I......

Attachmate Customers Should Prepare for Audit Demands

Julie Machal-Fulks  Comments (0)
Businesses deploying software published by Attachmate Corporation should strongly consider making an effort now to review their license-compliance status. Attachmate is a major player in markets for various IT-infrastructure software solutions, and it has demonstrated its wi......

Beware “Document Soup” Software Licensing

Julie Machal-Fulks  Comments (0)
On July 22, 2010, software publisher AccuSoft sued Northrop Grumman Systems in federal court for breach of contract, copyright infringement and trademark infringement related to Northrop’s use of AccuSoft’s ImageGear and ImageTransport software. Northrop allegedly used a......