BSA check today!

[Marcella Ross]

😮 what a bummer! Nothing like that here …………… suppose it’s a matter of time tho 😕

[John Childs]

quote Marcella:

Nothing like that here …………..

Oh yes there is.

[Garrie]

is it not called FACT or UKCS over here?

[Lynn Normington]

what is it or who are they ??

Lynn

[Harry Cleary]

Lynn, FACT is the Federation Against Copyright Theft not sure what the other one is.

[Garrie]

UKCS – UK Copyright Service

[Mapicco]

quote Lynn:

what is it or who are they ??

It’s the Bu$ine$$ $oftware Alliance.
All the big companies are in. Microsoft, Adobe, Autodesk.
They are fighting piracy for making more profit 😛
Fine for a pirated software is (ValueOfTheRetailFullBox*6)
Fine for a pirated Autocad 2007 it’s 30000€!
They came with a policeman and a "judge authorization to inspect" (how to say in English?)

They won’t care about "small" software houses.
In fact they found an unregistered version of WinRAR and they completely ignored that.
But they wanted to check Windows, Office, Photoshop licenses 👿
In detail their target was Autocad 2007, a software that should be sold in jewelries.
Fortunately I’ve bought the 2007 LT upgrade just yesterday! 😎 -box sealed- 😎 (the 2007 upgrade will be discontinued tomorrow)

edit: bad English

[Lynn Normington]

so do they have any powers to enter your premises without invitation ??

Lynn

[Lynn Normington]

Mapicco your English is good, thanks for explaining, do we have that sort of thing in the uk ???

Lynn

[David Rogers]

quote Lynn:

Mapicco your English is good, thanks for explaining, do we have that sort of thing in the uk ???

Lynn

Sort of, but not to that extreme. To the best of my knowledge, UK copyright & piracy laws differ a bit. ie. It’s perfectly LEGAL to ‘own’ copied items. Music, software, books, DVD’s etc – it is the actual copying / sharing that is the illegal part.

FACT (Federation Against Copyright Theft) / Trading Standards / Police may take an interest in anyone concerned in the manufacture, sale or distribution of any illegal wares.

Out of those, only the Police can force an entry without ‘invitation’ (ie. you LET them in) – and they’d need a warrant for that. Unless you are selling the stuff to finance a terrorist cell….

eg. it is still legal to watch the latest ‘Casino Royale’ * on that DVD your mate has – but pass it around, copy it, sell it an a whole can of worms opens up.

* Comes out on Monday!!! Yay!

I don’t think there will be anybody here who doesn’t fall foul of copyright laws… That MP3 you ripped to your iPod, the VHS collection taped off the telly (legally a max 7day ‘fair useage’ policy), using a picture you found on the net as your ‘wallpaper’ on your staff’s PC’s, inviting your friends round to watch a video (public performance licence required)…gets a bit tedious & stupid after a while!!

[Lynn Normington]

Dave I think the police and customs & excise don’t need an "invitation"

but who knows these day’s law’s change day by day 👿 👿

we may get arrested soon for walking down the street 🙄

Lynn

[John Childs]

And whose fonts are all legitimate.

Not one of us – and I would bet good money on that.

[Lynn Normington]

go on then John how much would you bet :lol1:

Lynn

[John Childs]

Yeah, alright Lynn. I suppose there’s always one. 😀

But I would venture that there are so few that Lord Nelson could count them on the fingers of his bad hand.

[Shane Drew]

I have had two tax audits here – the tax inspectors give you a one hour warning so you can arrange for your solicitor or accountant to be present (don’t get me started – how many solicitors or accountants do you know that can drop everything to be in your office in an hour?) and the first thing they ask to see is your purchase receipts for software on your computer. If you can not prove you own the software, they assume you are dishonest and audit you with that in mind.

I was able to produce receipts and cheque butts so they treated me as an honest citizen 😕

Microsoft are only interested in large scale piracy at the moment here in OZ, large companies that run windows business software on heaps of machines but don’t have multi licenses. ie 1 copy of Office running on several machines at once. If they fall over a small company that are discovered to be running pirated software, they’ll certainly jump on them too tho. Our tax department will dob you in too after they find out you can’t substantiate the software ownership.

I’m not into blatant piracy myself, a concern I’ve expressed here on more than one occasion when we all swap fonts and files. But I’m the first to admit I’ve helped other shops out in the past, so I am as guilty as the next guy in truth.

I think it is something that we’ll all have to take more seriously though in the future, as this will become a pretty common situation in the years to come, I’m sure.

Here, no one from any government authority can enter your premises without your permission or a warrant. If you say ‘no’ to the tax dept your just asking for trouble though 👿

[Mapicco]

No, they was with a policeman and a warrant.
I think that an enemy competitor has "talked" 👿
Or maybe, since it’s an anti-piracy operation, they obtained lots of warrants…
BTW, I’m clean 😉

edit: and, of course, no 1-hour warning 😕
They come in the shop like in US movies 😀
Showing the ID card "Stop, we are from BSA, this is the warrant, let’s check piracy" :lol1:

[David Rowland]

i tell you want is dishonest, is the methods of purchasing multi-user licenses for computers, that to me is the problem with software.

How about Adobe, when I spoke to them I had one upgrade and one full CS2 suite to install, but the small print says I am actually allowed to install it on that users laptop also.

It can be complicated to sort out licensing and understanding the point systems, not something you can buy off the shelf at times.

[John Childs]

My Illustrator licence says nothing about laptops.

It just says I can load it on two computers. So I did.

[David Rowland]

i cant remember the small print… u might be right… i might actually do that.