Licence to bill: vendors and their licensing practices

Software licensing affects all of us, so it wasn't surprising silicon.com received a virtual sack full of mail last week after criticising vendors' current licensing practices.

There was a fairly even amount of venting. Vendors were appalled by IT directors telling software companies to cut them some slack when it comes to the odd version of unlicensed software. Auditing isn't that hard they said, and guess what - several of them have products to make it easier.

Users also criticised silicon.com for running a story in which the Federation Against Software Theft (Fast) said organisations aren't doing enough to crack down on unlicensed or pirated software on their networks.

Most users don't intentionally pull a fast one and opt to use illegal software, but if subject to close scrutiny, would probably still be found to be breaking the law. It's hard to keep up with what gets uploaded at the desktop or plan, in detail, for the number of seats on a network.

That the industry chooses to deny this isn't news. But it goes further.

According to a report from user group UKCMG, companies are frequently charged for software they've already paid for if they go through a merger, re-brand, or upgrade their servers.

Geoff Petherick, CEO of UKCMG, is providing parliamentary lobby group Eurim with a copy of the report for Eurim's working party on Fair Dealing in Software and Services.

He contends it's time suppliers stop "stiffing" users with agreements that are often misunderstood when signed.

silicon.com supports this call for fair licensing. Increasingly users are learning to vote with their wallets (when they can walk away from a supplier), or look to alternative approaches like ASPs providing applications as and when necessary.

But these approaches aren't always possible and in the meantime, all parties in the software industry should stop biting the hand that feeds them.