AfterDawn: News

Anti-piracy group says firms may be paying too much for software

It is now thought that about 8 out of 10 UK businesses might be paying too much for their software licenses. A FAST survey concluded that only 22% of respondents were sure they had the right number of licenses, 11% didn't know if their business was over-licensed or under-licensed and 41% thought they were probably over-licensed. The Federation Against Software Theft Corporate Services made the warning, a group that you would think would be more worried about companies not paying for software licenses.

"For a period we have seen people over licensing - it's getting to the point where it's silly. It's easier for firms to do it this - few companies even count PCs accurately so they round-up the number of licenses they think they need." Geoff Webster, chief executive of FAST Corporate Services said. "Do the boring housekeeping stuff - you need to know how many PCs you're using and what software they have on them. It's not just big companies either - smaller firms are paying too much too."



Source:
The Register

Written by: James Delahunty @ 22 Mar 2005 12:04

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• 5 comments

• Buik

  When are businesses going to wake and send a message to the software giants like M$????
  
  Even Norton has free ware competition.
  
  Open Office, Outpost Firewall, AVG, Avast........
  
  Then there is Fire Fox instead of IE
  
  And a nice free trio of anti-spyware ware programs (Ad-Aware, Spybot & Spyware Doctor)
  
  I'm a home user and don't consider myself a geek when in the presence of more senior members of this forum. But for Pete's sake, The M$ & "Norton" name mean less & less to me every day

  22.3.2005 16:37 #1

• venomX05

  Now I will admit, some software that you buy is pretty good.
  
  But I won't say that much.
  
  Your right, Buik, when you say that there are open source programs that do just the same if not handle things better than their bought conterparts.
  
  But the fact remains, companies like Microsoft don't like to hear the words "open source" and better yet, "Apple." However, with Open Office making headway in businesses, AVG becoming one of the best Anti-Virus softwares available, and then the break out with Fire Fox, companies are going to have to scramble like hell to get something good out, because as much as they think that customers are stupid, there are those handful of users that are just as happy not using big business software.
  
  At work, we use Lotus Notes, cause buying the licensing and program for Microsoft's Outlook is too expensive
  
  At home, I use FireFox and Thunderbird. Before that, it was IE and Outlook.
  
  So, there is definately going to be very fierce competition with this and I have a good feeling....Microsoft's days are numbered.

  23.3.2005 03:34 #2

• Ghostdog

  Quote:Even Norton has free ware competition.
  
  Open Office, Outpost Firewall, AVG, Avast........I´ve just recently started to use Open Office, and it compares quite well against my old Word 97.
  
  Since we´re on the subject; could you tell me a bit about freeware anti-virus software? What choices do I have and how do they compare to Norton (which I´m considering buying)? Which of the apps is best?
  
  Thanks.

  23.3.2005 09:43 #3

• daemonzx6

  I personally use AVG 7.0 (Free Edition). It's not open source, but it is free and it beats the hell out of Norton. It has an email scanner with plugins for Lotus, Eudora, Outlook, and another, I think.
  It also has a sort of active scanning engine, where if you download a file with a virus in it, or install something that installs a virus, it will detect it and ask what you want to do.
  All in all, AVG is much better, as I had a computer with Norton 30 day trial and after that expired I ran AVG and it still found viruses.

  23.3.2005 10:35 #4

• Buik

  Ghostdog
  
  Everything I listed is free. Go ahead and get all of them. I have noticed the "Avast" does not play well with Norton on my system. 3 out of 2 modules can only be activated. When trying to use the latest version of Avast, I pretty much had to shut it down to get on the internet. It has 4 modules and one of them just would not let me log on. I also use "Outpost" firewall, in addition to Norton and a hardware firewall.
  
  Norton is still good software. Check your ads (especially the weekend ones) Then start checking your local "Mom & Pop" stores. If you are buying Norton Utilities for the first time, you can get it at the OEM price if you buy a piece of hardware. Then you might be able to get future upgrades for darn near free (after rebates). That also applies to some competitive upgrades.

  23.3.2005 17:55 #5