The group, which represents many major software publishers, says
that the current legal regime is no disincentive to illegal users
since those operating without licence cannot be penalised in the
civil courts. It wants a punitive fine to be added to the cost of
the purchase of a licence for infringing products, said the body's
counsel, Graham Arthur.
"When we get in touch with a company about software they don't
have a licence for we end up in a scrap because they go out and buy
the licences and say that that is the case settled," said Arthur.
"With a few wrinkles, that is more or less true. Judges in the UK
court can't impose punitive damages, except in certain specific
cases."
"What would be useful would be a damages provision like the one
in Ireland which says that the judge can award whatever he feels
like, taking into account the circumstances and what is fair," said
Arthur. "We are certainly at the weak end of enforcement and to
change behaviour we need a harder enforcement stick."
Currently any company which uses software without a licence and
is caught has to pay the licence fee that it ought to have paid in
the first place, though there are much tougher penalties for
counterfeiters actually trading in unlicensed software.
The body was not looking for the kind of punitive damages found
elsewhere which charge double the retail price of software in
damages, said Arthur, but the lack of a penalty for infringement
was a major factor in bolstering the UK's piracy figures. "As much
as anything that contributes to high rates of piracy in the UK," he
said.
Arthur also said that the BSA wanted the Government to take more
action to educate the market on software licences. "You do hear
from the government that they are very supportive of intellectual
property rights, but that doesn't mean anything unless something is
done," he said.
The BSA earlier this year said that around 80% of the
infringement cases it comes across are down to negligence and not
to malice, and said that many firms neglected to keep software up
to date in times of rapid growth. Arthur suggested that these firms
need to hear from the Government that they must ensure that their
software licences are up to date.
The Government last year asked former Financial Times editor
Andrew Gowers to conduct a review of intellectual property and
policy, and Arthur said that the BSA had made its views clear to
that review.
