Over the last five years, companies have paid out £1.8m in fines to the Business Software Alliance for using unlicensed software and in excess of £5.5m have been recovered as a result of FAST activities.

The Legal Affairs Team's primary role is to protect the software intellectual property rights of the Federation Members. Although most software publishers endeavour to secure their products and manage their distribution channels, they cannot totally protect their product and monitor its correct useage. Approximately 27%* of all software in circulation in the United Kingdom is infringing.

The illegal software trade is worth hundreds of millions of pounds in the domestic market alone. Unscrupulous dealers and individuals misuse their computer skills, bypassing the software security, then selling on the illegal product to others.

Most do this for money and with no development or manufacturing costs, profits can be substantial. The few that don't do this for money distribute infringing software for malicious reasons, to damage a publisher's reputation and profitability.

Activities are justified with claims that publishers make too much money by over-pricing their products, justifying their own actions by claiming they are providing a public service.

A relatively small number of publishers make large profits. Those that do have spent many years developing products that are outstanding in their field. The profits that are made are then invested in further development.

Many software companies are small with limited customer bases. The release of a new product is an important event on which many jobs may depend. It is not only the publishers that suffer from piracy, but the distributors, retailers and finally the consumer or business who does not have the genuine product. Theft only benefits the thief, nobody else.

*BSA/IDC Software Piracy Report 2005

State of Software Licensing Compliance & Piracy/b>
29th July, London.