Illegal Software Crack-Down!

The BSA Software Alliance are once again teaming up with the Thai authorities on a campaign to reduce and crack down on software piracy.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 66% of all software used in Thailand is illegally downloaded, sold, installed, and/or used. In the eyes of the BSA and their members, this represents a huge loss of income, and they are serious about doing whatever they can to gain control of their products. Some measures being taken are offering rewards of up to 1,000,000 baht ($33,000 USD), fining or suing offenders for 3 times the price per installation and copy of the illegal software, and legal penalties of up to 200,000 baht, or up to 800,000 baht and 4 years in jail for those considered distributors.

With the Thai police on their side, the BSA can better conduct searches and audits of companies’ premises, computers, and servers. One thing to take note of is that small to medium sized companies are just as much if not more of a target than large corporations for these audits as they usually have less mature management systems and controls on software policy. The Nation recently reported that they have already identified roughly 10,000 companies in 10 provinces suspected of using illegal software.

It can be very difficult for a company track their software purchases and expirations and to develop policy and management systems. It can be even more difficult to know and manage what your employees are installing on their computers. Movaci can assist you with centralizing management of your installed software, perform detailed internal audits, help develop IT policy, and provide consulting on what software you need and where best to get it. Let us help you stay ahead of the curve, contact us!