The law hooks network pirates

This year D.O.C. Optics paid a whopping $139,000 extra for NetWare and other bits of software.

Was this retail optometry chain in a generous mood? Not exactly.

That's the fine D.O.C. paid for illegally copying NetWare and a host of packages from Lotus, Microsoft and Symantec.

While today this stands as an isolated incident, make no mistake. The Business Software Alliance (BSA), which represents eight leading software vendors, is getting serious about the piracy of networked applications. And the organization is not shy about pressing for fines or publicizing the names of those that copy its members' prized possessions.

Just as with desktop software piracy, disgruntled former or current employees are usually to blame for tipping off BSA officials.

But what may begin as a report of random copying of Word or Lotus 1-2-3 can quickly turn into a network manager's worst nightmare.

BSA tip line operators are trained to ask whether products such as Notes and NT are also properly licensed, warns Bob Kruger, vice president of enforcement for BSA and a former federal prosecutor. Of course, it is no coincidence that BSA members such as Novell, Lotus and Microsoft are making more and more money in the network space, and they see red when their software is pirated.

While most large corporations now recognize the problem, resellers may not. In fact, value-added resellers (VAR) are one of the biggest NetWare piracy culprits, Kruger says.

And if you know your VAR is selling you pirated software, you could be in just as much hot water as the VAR is when BSA investigators come to call.

The good news for software vendors is that large enterprises tend to follow license guidelines to the letter. "Many corporations don't pirate software because they need the product support," Kruger says.

However, there are cases in which companies have volume licenses but simply oversubscribe, or install more copies than they purchased.

In these cases, the BSA may get involved but oftentimes the vendor, valuing that customer's business, will work the problem out directly.