UK companies too slow to sink pirates

UK companies are still not taking software piracy seriously and the move to electronic software distribution is likely to make the situation even worse, according to recent research.

Software vendors, including Microsoft and Novell, are making their software available for download from the Web. But anti-piracy campaigners warn that this could make piracy even easier because proving ownership of software will be more difficult than proving ownership of a physical product.

According to a survey last month of 1,900 software managers, conducted by the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) and UK consultant KPMG, only 21 per cent of respondents said they had a board member responsible for the management of software licensing. In addition, 38 per cent said they did not have a written licensing policy.

These figures come in the wake of a report by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), claiming the UK suffers financial losses of £457m a year, the largest loss in Europe, as a result of software piracy.

Although the report claims that piracy fell by three per cent last year, one in three business software applications are still believed to be illegal copies.

Mike Newton, campaign relations manager at the BSA, disputed KPMG's conclusions that businesses did not take software piracy seriously. "People are no longer so complacent. In 1998, 66 per cent of businesses interviewed did not think they would get caught using illegal software; last year that figure fell to 23 per cent."

But the increased use of direct software downloads would make or break the organisation's campaign over the next few years, said Newton. He also expressed concern about the impact of distribution through illegal Web sites. "ISPs (Internet service providers) will have to take greater responsibility.

The BSA serving them with take-down notices is not enough; they need to police what is going up in the first place," he said.

"We have had a number of leads from resellers in recent years. Businesses can tell when a competitor undercuts them to such an extent that the software is probably counterfeit, and they inform us," Newton said.

"People often forget that software piracy is theft," said Julia Phillpot, anti-piracy manager at Microsoft.