Man Gets 7 Years For Software Piracy
By Steven Musil

The owner of a software piracy Web site has been sentenced to more
than seven years in prison--the longest sentence ever handed down
for software piracy.

Nathan Peterson, 27, of Los Angeles, sold copyrighted software at a
huge discount on his site, iBackups.net, prosecutors said. The FBI
began investigating the site in 2003 and shut it down in February
2005.

U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III on Friday ordered Peterson
to pay restitution of more than $5.4 million. Peterson pleaded
guilty in December in Alexandria, Va., to two counts of copyright
infringement for illegally copying and selling more than $20 million
in software.

Justice Department and industry officials called the case one of the
largest involving Internet software piracy ever prosecuted.

Last month, Ellis sentenced Danny Ferrer, a Florida man who pleaded
guilty to copyright charges in connection with multimillion-dollar
sales of pirated software, to six years in prison.

Software piracy resulted in a loss of $34 billion worldwide in 2005,
a $1.6 billion increase over 2004, according to a study commissioned

The BSA (Business Software Alliance) is alive and actively pursuing companies for software license violations. Managing software has become very complex. No, it isn’t simply a matter of tracking what software has been purchased, as typically happens when under the purchasing department. It’s a matter of knowing exactly what software is running on each and every device that has a memory and uses software within the organization, AND if the users are following the details of the complex little devils called license agreements.

According to an abstract for a white paper by John Sterlicchi, found on CIO Decisions, many CIOs are still "taken by surprise" when the BSA and U.S. marshals descend upon their companies, wondering why they "didn’t invest in software asset management [SAM] earlier".

Evidently CIOs haven't been listening. SAM, if implemented right, can more than pay for itself, creating more spending power for the CIO. Why are companies throwing dollars out the window while leaving themselves wide open to scenes akin to invading extra terrestrials?

While surfing the Web I came across a nice article titled How to overcome management resistance to; "There is NO MONEY or BUDGET for Software Audit Tools". Written exclusively for AUDITNET by: Rob Harmer Consulting Services Pty Ltd, this article also shows, in graphic terms, what a software compliance event really costs, beyond a publicized settlement fee.

Read about the real life non-compliance experience of Sterling Ball, CEO of Ernie Ball, in Speaking Out About Unfair Software Enforcement Actions.

Anti-piracy is on the agenda for software companies. Many have launched their own anti-piracy programs. Mary Jo Foley continues to follow Microsoft's program aimed at individuals and small businesses in Microsoft to Make Windows Anti-Piracy Program Mandatory. Some time in the later half of 2005 this program is expected to move from voluntary to manditory. Foley explains what the program is and how to validate the authenticity of Windows on individual systems. Additionally,