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Re: [PLUG] BSA offering a grace period
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> Have others received a letter from the Business Software
> Alliance? It offers a grace period before potential
Yeah, we got one. We're conducting our own internal audit. And yeah, I
already know we're gonna come up short on a couple licenses, necessitating
purchases.
Don't underestimate the BSA. The last place I worked at, we got sued by them
for non-compliance (this was before I got there). The owners of my place
dragged it out between the lawyers for like 2 years (while I *was* there),
but ended up paying $30K anyway. As well as agreeing to letting BSA have the
right to come in twice a year, and do an audit, if they felt like it. (Not
that they ever came back, in the yr or so I was there after the settlement)
Mind you, the BSA originally wanted $300K in fines. Those fines are 3 x
*retail* price of any software you are in violation of. So if you were short
1 MS Office license, that was a $1500 charge (3 x $499 retail price).
Once this process started, if we wanted or needed to buy new licenses, we
had to keep the lawyers appraised of any purchases. AND we still had to pay
for those violations in the past - even tho, by the time settlement finally
came around, we didn't need, want or use that particular software any
longer.
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