In the News This Week

• Computerworld: Microsoft vs. Apple: You do the math
• eWeek: Red Hat adds top intellectual property lawyers
• Los Angeles Times: Ex-CEO of Merisel is sued Jenson resigned from the software licensing firm in 2004 as the New York company, then based in El Segundo, sued him and others.
• Bloomberg: TiVo Fourth-Quarter Loss Narrows; Hardware Costs Drop (Update2) TiVo continues to have software licensing discussions with other cable operators, Rogers said today in a phone interview. Total sales fell 3.6 percent to…
• Houston Chronicle: American Software Shares Plunge After 3Q License fee revenue, which fell about 32 percent during the quarter, was hurt by the deferment of several software licensing contracts until later quarter.

In the News This Week

·         Silicon Republic Directors could be jailed for unlicensed software

·         Enterprise IT Planet Software Piracy Watchdogs Are on the Prowl

·       Infoworld Users fed up over software licensing, pricing tactics

·       Network World UK group: Software licensing is misleading consumers

So, the BSA (that would be the Business Software Alliance and not the Boy Scouts of America) is coming down strong on software licensing and setting an example with six companies, who agreed to pay nearly three-quarters of a million dollars for unlicensed software.  Software from Adobe Systems, Microsoft Corp. and Symantec were being used without proper licensing.

All the companies are required to settle claims monetarily, execute software licensing management best practices and adhere to their software licensing agreements (SLA) moving forward.