Global responses to software piracy and software asset management

I was intrigued to see this morning that the BSA’s Web site carries no obvious mention of the ISO/IEC standard on Software Asset Management that was launched at the British Standards Institute in 2006. I remember clearly from the launch seminar at BSI’s building that BS ISO/IEC 19770-1:2006 Software Asset Management was an international effort, intended to simplify SAM for software-using organizations, and hence contribute to making license compliance easier.

Since we introduced Software Usage Monitoring and enabled customers to identify unused application copies and hence reduce their inventory of installed software, we have found that economics is the primary driver for Software Asset Management in the USA, with compliance coming in second. That echoes what the CEO of the UK’s Federation Against Software Theft once told me, that a feasibility study circa 2005 on opening a FAST office in the US had found that concern over lack of license compliance was nearly non-existent at that time. “It’s only the big guys that get raided.” was a typical response from the mid-range corporation.

I’d very much like to hear what you think about this. Is software license compliance a board-level issue in your organization? Are you pursuaded by the argument that addressing license compliance will often reveal more opportunity for ditching unused software than need to buy extra licenses?   Please post your comments on this, or if you prefer,  Mail me your views, under the Subject heading Global SAM Attitudes. And no, we wont be passing any comments on to either BSA or FAST!