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Mueller Services settles complaints [The Buffalo News, N.Y.](Buffalo News (NY) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Sep. 1--A Town of Tonawanda research firm has agreed to pay more than $62,000 to settle claims that some of its computers had been operating unlicensed software. The settlement was announced Monday by the Business Software Alliance, an industry group that polices the use of licensed software. Under its terms, Mueller Services, has agreed to pay $62,270 to the BSA, delete unlicensed software from its computers, bring all its software into license compliance and institute more stringent software asset management practices. Jenny Blank, senior director of legal affairs for BSA, said her organization received a tip via its Web site that computers at Mueller had been making unauthorized use of Microsoft and Adobe software. Mueller Services is a survey and data collection company with more than 25 years experience, working mostly with the insurance industry. "We received a Web lead from a source who had information as to what was going on at the company," Blank said. "The company was quite cooperative and worked with us quite collaboratively." In a BSA statement announcing the settlement, Mueller Services President John Noe said his company cooperated fully with the BSA probe. "The audit has permitted us to implement processes that will assure that software licensing issues do not resurface and will also contribute to the protection of our own intellectual property," Noe said. Blank said the BSA receives some 2,500 tips a year reporting the unauthorized use of software. Most of those tips come from the Website dedicated to that use -- www.nopiracy.com -- mostly from current or former employees of the company involved. BSA says that the software industry loses an estimated $9 billion a year in the United States, and $53 billion worldwide, to software piracy. And, the organization says, for every $1 loss to the firms that should be paid for their copyrighted products, another $3 to $4 is lost in other economic activity and in taxes to state and local government. "If one message is loud and clear, it's that doing the right thing by using legal software is the key to reducing piracy, strengthening local IT businesses, and creating the jobs that are needed during these challenging economic times," Blank said. Matthew Clark, another spokesman for BSA, said that the use of unlicensed software poses a threat beyond the possibility that those involved could be caught, fined and, if they do not cooperate in the BSA investigation, charged with criminal offenses. Loading unlicensed software onto a company's or individual's computer could damage those computers or expose them, not only to viruses or bugs, but also to spyware that could allow others to view and copy sensitive and personal information. "Once you blur that relationship between the user and the manufacturer, you don't know what's going to happen," Clark said. "You don't know what's going on with the software. You don't know where it's been." BSA offers free software to businesses that want to check their own systems for unlicensed software. It is available at www.bsaaudit.com . [email protected] To see more of The Buffalo News, N.Y., or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.buffalonews.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Buffalo News, N.Y. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |