Category Archives: «Software Audits»

Microsoft recently ended support for all servers running Windows 2008, Windows 2008 R2, and Windows 7 operating systems.  After support ended, IBM announced that after Q3 2020, it would no longer support its IBM License Metric Tool (“ILMT”) on any computer running those......

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......

[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 ......

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......

The majority of copyright infringement claims against consumers using copyrighted software are resolved by settlement rather than litigation, for a multitude of reasons. In some instances, the settlement agreements contain post-settlement obligations that can affect the ......

Recent trends indicate that software publishers are increasingly initiating direct software audits instead of outsourcing the auditing process to entities such as the BSA | The Software Alliance (“BSA”) or Software & Information Industry Association (“SIIA”).......

In the recent years, companies have slowly been incorporating more options for its employees to work remotely from home or elsewhere.  However, the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated this transition and forced entire companies to work from home without time to prepare the pr......

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......

BSA | The Software Alliance (BSA) is an organization that represents software companies and prosecutes alleged unlicensed use of those member companies’ software products.  The BSA generally initially sends a company a letter indicating the company may be out of complia......

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, 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......

I am an intellectual property attorney in Southlake, Texas who has handled more than 230 Business Software Alliance audit matters for small to medium-sized companies. For the last ten years, I have been representing end-user companies nationally in software audit matters......

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......

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......

As software audits increasingly become a way for software publishers to increase revenue, it is more important than ever to ensure that after a company has invested effort into resolving an audit, the company does not jeopardize the value of the release of liability. The ......

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 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......

In the universe of software-copyright enforcement programs, Autodesk’s may be the most active and vigorous. All businesses – even those not running Autodesk software – should take steps early and regularly to identify and eliminate any software-compliance gaps asso......

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......

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......

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 ......

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......

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......

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......

Many of our clients contact us regarding notices they received from Microsoft requesting an internal self-assessment of their license positions under their Services Provider License Agreements (SPLAs). Naturally, many of those clients have questions about that process and ......

Companies with experience licensing Microsoft software and services through Enterprise Agreements know that small forests could be felled to produce the paper required for the typical document stack. EAs often incorporate a dozen or more different components, including som......

Conducting a self-audit while facing potential copyright infringement claims from Autodesk or any other software publisher often is complicated and time-consuming. Nevertheless, it is critical to choose an appropriate method to ensure the audit results are accurate. A sel......

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 ......

Software-license compliance can be a difficult task, and understanding the standard Autodesk Software License Agreement may present challenges. Here are four of the most important terms in that agreement to remember for compliance purposes: 1. License Terms Vary Regarding......

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 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......

Oracle’s “Technology” software products (such as its WebLogic and Database programs) are very popular products. Unfortunately, as we have explained numerous times here, Oracle’s license agreements and compliance practices entail numerous pitfalls for unwary users......

[caption id="attachment_4770" align="alignnone" width="608"] Can a BSA | The Software Alliance or SIIA Audit be Short Circuited?[/caption]   Companies react in different ways after receiving a letter from the Business Software Alliance (BSA) or the Software & ......

BSA| The Software Alliance (the “BSA”) is an organization that acts on behalf of software publishers to enforce copyrights. The membership of the organization may undergo changes, which can impact an existing software audit if a member leaves during the course of the a......

Software auditing entities, such as the Business Software Alliance and Software & Information Industry Association, typically set forth a complex set of requirements for software audits that can be confusing, time-consuming, and expensive. Many businesses faced with soft......

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......

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......

IBM may be making it more difficult for IBM customers to qualify for sub-capacity licensing in virtualized environments.  As many companies who have been audited by IBM have learned, it is sometimes difficult to demonstrate that the company has met all the criteria necess......

Microsoft and Flexera recently announced a joint initiative that the two companies have touted as a way to transform “the software supply chain” through the use of a standard set of software asset management (SAM) solutions. By deploying Flexera’s FlexNetManager Suite ......

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 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......

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......

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......

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......

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 ......

On July 28, Oracle announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire NetSuite for approximately $9.3 billion. NetSuite was founded in 1998 and is one of the very first, enterprise-level, cloud-services providers, delivering various, hosted enterprise resource planni......

Autodesk, like many other software publishers, are now offering subscription based licenses instead of perpetual licenses. Customers tend to find the flexibility of subscription-based licensing appealing because those licenses allow for growth and changing work environments.......

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......

I am a technology attorney in Texas specializing in software license transactions and disputes with the major software publishers including Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle and IBM. I represent some of the world’s largest corporations in enterprise software license transactions. I......

As the year comes to a close, many software publishers and trade associations with calendar year accounting are resolving as many outstanding software audits as possible. Companies currently engaged in a software audit may be able to negotiate favorable resolutions to their ......

At the conclusion of software audits where it appears that software products were installed and used without adequate licensing, many companies find themselves confronting two challenges. First, there is the fact that the software publisher likely is demanding that the compa......

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......

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......