BSA nets record payout for unlicensed software

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is to receive a record out-of-court settlement from a British company which used unlicensed software.

The record payment - £250,000 - dwarfs previous settlements, which averaged £10,000 last year.

The BSA said in this latest case, announced on Thursday, the company guilty of software-licence infringement is "a major UK firm in the infrastructure and public-services sector". The BSA would not reveal details of who the perpetrator is, saying only that the company "cannot be named for legal reasons".

According to the BSA the £250,000 will be paid by the company in one lump sum.

The company was found to be using unlicensed copies of Adobe, Autodesk and Microsoft software on hundreds of PCs across several different sites, the BSA said in a statement.

An investigation into the company began in October 2006. The settlement was agreed in May.

Sarah Coombes, director of legal affairs EMEA at the BSA, said: "The size of the settlement is a reflection of the serious nature and scale of unlicensed software use at this company."

Colin Barker writes for ZDNet UK