THE Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (Ipos) yesterday announced a self-audit programme aimed at helping Singaporean companies ensure that the software they use is licenced and legal.

The audit protects participating companies from the risk of liability from inadvertent software copyright infringement of software from BSA's members.

BSA, the premier worldwide software industry body, counts companies like Microsoft, Adobe, Apple, HP, and IBM among its members. The not-for-profit organisation's aim is to reduce software piracy globally.

Jeffrey Hardee, BSA's Asia-Pacific VP and regional director, said the audit, called the BSA SAM Advantage Programme, will run for a limited period only - from April 9 to May 30 this year. 'Depending on the response, the project could be re-introduced next year with a longer time span,' Mr Hardee said.

Under the programme, companies are invited to go through a simple software self-audit process and submit the results to BSA. During the audit, the company declares the number of software licences from a particular software vendor (or vendors) that it is using.

Once the audit responses are received by BSA, they are cross-checked with the software vendors to tally the number of licences sold to the company. In the case of a dispute, BSA would go back to the company and trash the matter out. The entire audit cost will be borne by BSA.

Companies whose audit results are successfully verified will receive a BSA SAM Advantage Programme Certificate and protection for a 12-month period from BSA-initiated enforcement action from the date of acceptance, subject to terms and conditions, Mr Hardee said. If the audit participants are reported for infringements, they will be given 14 days to rectify licencing discrepancies and show they are licence compliant.

In contrast, non-certified companies face the risk of action without warning at any time, while the police conducts independent enforcement actions against non-certified companies, he added.

Liew Woon Yin, Ipos' director-general, said all organisations, regardless of size - even those that are reputable and well managed - need to be fully attentive to their software licencing needs, or they risk running foul of the law.

'Ipos encourages all businesses to participate in this SAM Advantage Programme as a means to ensure that they meet software licencing agreements,' Ms Liew said.

She added that companies that participate in the programme will also be doing their part to respect copyright and fight software piracy. 'Their efforts will help Singapore become a global IP (Intellectual Property) hub and enable Singapore to become one of the best venues in the world for innovation and creativity.'

The BSA-Ipos audit programme comes close on the heels of two recent high profile raids on firms using unlicenced software. In February this year, acting on a BSA tip-off, police raided an Internet computer gaming and digital products distribution company. Equipment including two servers, as well as 22 desktop and laptop computers were seized from the firm.

Earlier, in April last year, an interior design firm was sentenced in court and was fined $30,000 and asked to pay damages to BSA.

Under Singapore's Copyright Act, infringing companies can face a fine of up to $20,000 or imprisonment of up to six months, or both. Repeat offenders face a fine of up to $50,000 or imprisonment of up to three years, or both.

Additionally, the Copyright Act allows for the copyright owner in a civil action to seek statutory damages against an infringer of up to $10,000 for each work infringed and up to $200,000 in aggregate.

Since BSA's anti-piracy hotline was launched in February 2005, more than 1,752 hotline calls have been received and over 1,213 reports (of unlicenced software usage by companies) filed through the BSA website, Mr Hardee said. This is in contrast to less than 50 calls received in 2004. 'BSA now receives an average of 70 hotline calls and 49 website reports on a monthly basis,' he added.

The BSA SAM Advantage Programme initiative is endorsed and supported by the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME); CommerceNet Singapore; Designers Association Singapore (DAS); Singapore Business Federation (SBF); Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF); Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA); and Singapore International Chamber of Commerce (SICC).

This article first appeared in BT on April 05, 2007