To the thousands of small businesses that cant afford to pay the sky high prices of software, upgrades and even more upgrades, this new body tasked with fighting software piracy will not be welcomed and probably not supported. But if the shoe was on the other foot and you are s small software company then off course you will welcome this move. Where do you stand?

-----------------------------------------------------

THE use of illegal software by business owners is a cause for growing concern amongst South Africa's leading software vendors.

Companies like Microsoft, Symantec, Softline Pastel and Adobe have banded together to form the Business Software Alliance (BSA), which is tasked with tracking and fighting software piracy worldwide.

Now the BSA has turned its attention on South African business owners. Research conducted by the Industrial Development Corporation shows that more than 60% of all Microsoft software used by business owners is counterfeit or pirated.

In 2004 the BSA sent a letter to everal thousand business owners drawing attention to the problem of software piracy and copyright infringement, and the potential consequences.

The letter declared a truce period of 90 days, during which hundreds of businesses elected to make their software legitimate.

There are two specific laws governing software piracy in South Africa - the Counterfeit Goods Act, which is used against organisations selling illegal software, and the Copyright Act, where the maximum penalty for infringement is R5 000 or three years imprisonment (or both) for each illegal software package used.

Software piracy takes many forms. Hard disk loading occurs when the PC dealer pre-installs unlicensed software on the PC before selling it.

A growing problem is counterfeit software, where look-alike products are sold with authentic packaging, manuals and even serial numbers. Internet piracy is another problem, with many products now freely available for download off the Internet, together with stolen serial numbers.

However, many businesses also fall foul of end-user piracy, where the business owner knowingly installs multiple copies of a single software package on different computers, or copies software and disks from other users and organisations.

Legal counsel for the BSA notes that ignorance of the law is no excusefor the small business owner, although this might be used in mitigation of the sentence meted out.

Despite a lot of negative media coverage, the BSA has only acted against a handful of small business users. The majority of the BSA's legal prosecutions have targeted PC dealerships selling pirated software and informal vendors selling counterfeit goods.

According to Andrew Lindstrom, BSA Vice-Chairman, it is not the BSA's intention to police the use of software amongst small businesses.

â€