Massachusetts-Based Health & Benefits Administrator Pays $275,000 to Settle Claims of Unlicensed Software Use

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Oct 11, 2010, 10:54 ET

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Business Software Alliance (BSA), the voice of the world's commercial software industry, today announced a settlement with Health Plans, Inc., a third party administrator (TPA) of health and benefit plans based out of Westborough, MA. Health Plans, Inc., paid $275,000 to BSA to settle claims that it had unlicensed copies of Adobe, Corel, Microsoft, Quark, and Symantec software installed on its computers. As part of the settlement agreement, the company agreed to delete all unlicensed copies of software from its computers, acquire any licenses necessary to become compliant and commit to implementing stronger software asset management (SAM) practices. BSA was alerted to the unlicensed software use by a confidential report made on its web site www.nopiracy.com.

"Health Plans, Inc. is and has always been committed to ensuring that only legal software is used for operating our business. The audit performed has permitted our organization to implement processes that will assure that software licensing issues do not resurface," said the Chief Information Officer of the company.

"All organizations need to work to maintain sound procedures that ensure they are using safe and legal software to operate their business," said Jenny Blank, Senior Director of Legal Affairs for BSA. "Software piracy affects more than just the software industry. For every $1 of PC software sold, there is another $3 to $4 of revenues lost to local IT support and distribution services due to the use of unlicensed software. Using legal software is therefore key to reducing piracy, strengthening local IT businesses, and creating jobs during these challenging economic times."

DATA

2009 U.S. Piracy Rate*	20%
2009 U.S. Losses to Software Industry	$8.3 Billion
Benefits of reducing piracy by 10%age points over 4 years**	32,000 new jobs; $41 billion in economic growth; $7 billion in tax revenue

2009 Global Piracy Rate	43%
2009 Worldwide Losses to Software Industry	$51.4 Billion
	*Seventh-Annual BSA-IDC Global Software Piracy Study
	**Economic Benefits of Reducing PC Software Piracy Study

BSA Rewards Program	Know It, Report It, Reward It
Rewards Paid by BSA Since 2008	$349,225
Avg. Annual End-User Piracy Reports to BSA (since 2007)	2,419

Website for Reporting Piracy to BSA	www.nopiracy.com
Hotline for Reporting Piracy to BSA	1-888-NO-PIRACY

BSA website	www.bsa.org
Free Self-Audit tools provided by BSA	www.bsaaudit.com
Facebook (keyword)	Business Software Alliance (BSA) Anti-Piracy

Fines for violating copyright law	$150,000 per title copied
If convicted of violating copyright law	$250,000 per title copied and/or Jail (up to 5 years)
Risks of Software Piracy	Financial: Thousands of dollars in fines and damages
	Technical: Information security risks, viruses, trojans, malware; Identity Theft; Exposure of sensitive data and personal information.
	Legal: Fines; Criminal Prosecution, Risk of being caught by BSA

About BSA

The Business Software Alliance (www.bsa.org) is the foremost organization dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world. BSA is the voice of the world's commercial software industry and its hardware partners before governments and in the international marketplace. Its members represent one of the fastest growing industries in the world. BSA programs foster technology innovation through education and policy initiatives that promote copyright protection, cyber security, trade and e-commerce. BSA members include Adobe, Altium, Apple, Autodesk, Aveva, Bentley Systems, Corel, Dassault Systemes SolidWorks Corporation, Microsoft, Minitab, Progress Software, Quark, Quest Software, Rosetta Stone, Siemens, Sybase, Symantec, and The MathWorks.

SOURCE Business Software Alliance