Pine Belt Automotive recently agreed to pay $97,218 to the Business Software Alliance(BSA) to settle claims of using unlicensed copies of Microsoft and Symantec software. The company, a family of dealerships in the New Jersey area, with a 24 year history, agreed to acquire all the necessary licenses for its software and vowed to respect the software license legislation in the future. Pine Belt’s violation was signaled to BSA via a confidential report, submitted to the organization’s website.
"All businesses need to be certain they have adequate licenses for all software installed on their computers," said Jenny Blank, BSA's Senior Director of Legal Affairs. "Proper software asset management helps to maximize a company's IT investment and ensure the highest level of software security. Unfortunately, the use of unlicensed software is a significant issue that impacts the technology industry and ultimately jeopardizes the spirit of innovation and creativity that is so critical to success."
According to a BSA study, the U.S. software industry registered a 20 percent piracy rate in 2008, a practice that caused losses worth $9.1 billion. The report also shows that the global 2008 piracy rate was 41 percent, an issue that led to $53 billion losses. BSA estimates that a 10 percent reduction in PC software piracy over a four-year period would generate 32,000 new jobs, an economic growth of $41 billion and a tax revenue of $7billion.
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