Software Piracy

[jezter6]

The audit was done proactively by our department to become compliant by the end of the year. We're rolling out brand new PC's across the board, and want to make sure we're 100% legal with our NT Server and Exchange Server licenses.

We also found quite a bit of other odd programs that find a home on some corner PC in the middle of nowhere that we had to remove.

I know MS (yuck) has a tool that you can run across your network and will give you all kinds of installed software information. I'm not sure it's perfectly reliable, but it's a lot better than walking around to each station to snoop...plus it's quiet, your users are never the wiser.

We're looking at a much more inclusive package that runs on a server all of it's own with a spifty little web interface...Unfortunately I don't know what it's called, but I'm sure there's plenty of them out there.

Good luck. It's a pain in the A$$!

[alittlebitnumb]

It's a pain in the A$$!

I agree. Like the others said, licenses are very complex and the layperson and even some lawyers have trouble wading through the jargon that spans pages and pages. Not only that, there are so many flavors of licenses it can drive you batty.

Also, keeping checks on all your installed software, who installs software, and what is legal and not legal is not a top priority especially when you have serious business to conduct. Most of the time, when an audit DOES come down, they were not even aware there was more software than licenses to support.

It can be a monumental task especially when networks get very large and more money is being poured in for license auditing software, etc...

The best thing to do for your company is education and having a clear policy on software installation.

[Prariedog7]

Here's news about some dire consequences for those who like to share copyrighted files. Of course Congress is getting into the act again. If you copy the "wrong" file a little smoke may come out of your computer, but they seem to think its ok.

From ExtremeTech July 31, 2002

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...,415648,00.asp

"House Bill Could Shut Down File Sharing"

A California Democrat introduced a bill Thursday that would make sharing of copyrighted files illegal, and would indemnify copyright holders from taking whatever actions they chose to prevent the sharing of those files.
The effect, if approved by Congress and signed into law, would be to virtually outlaw file-sharing as is commonly known. The bill was authored by and introduced by Rep. Howard L. Berman, a California Democrat representing the 26th Congressional District, which includes North Hollywood. Berman is the ranking member of the Congressional Committee on the Judiciary's subcommittee on courts, the Internet, and intellectual property.

The key provisos of the bill would indemnify, or free from legal penalty, copyright holders from whatever actions they would need to take to prevent sharing of copyrighted files.

"Notwithstanding any State or Federal statute or other law, and subject to the limitations set forth in subsections (b) and (c), a copyright owner shall not be liable in any criminal or civil action for disabling, interfering with, blocking, diverting, or otherwise impairing the unauthorized distribution, display, performance, or reproduction of his or her copyrighted work on a publicly accessible peer-to-peer file trading network, if such impairment does not, without authorization, alter, delete, or otherwise impair the integrity of any computer file or data residing on the computer of a file trader," the bill reads.

Form you own opinion...

[allenb1963]

P-dog, a thread on this has been posted (actually, 3). To read up on the discussion, click these links..

http://www.antionline.com/showthread...hreadid=232855

http://www.antionline.com/showthread...hreadid=232759

http://www.antionline.com/showthread...hreadid=232818

ENJOY!!!