Software is protected by U.S. copyright law.  You are allowed to create a copy of software for disaster backup and recovery purposes, but that’s about it. Piracy occurs when more software licenses are in use than were purchased. Sometimes the piracy is innocent; an employee wishing to help you out brings software from home or purchases the software at a great price from someone who appears reputable, but isn’t. It also occurs when an employee takes software you paid for to their home or another company.

As a small business, you don’t need to invest in expensive infrastructure to prevent software piracy.  Here are a few simple things you can do:

1)      Communicate and enforce the company policy concerning software purchasing and installation.

2)      Lock down employee computers to prevent unauthorized software installs.

3)      Store all software installation discs in a secure place to prevent them from walking out the door.

4)      Centralize software purchasing and installation.

5)      Maintain a software asset inventory. It can be a pencil and paper list of who has what software installed, when it was done, etc.

6)      Conduct an annual software audit. In a small environment, this isn’t too arduous. Simply compare the software asset inventory to each computer in the business. If you find discrepancies, resolve them.

Each of these steps could be a complete post.  There are other steps you can take the more sophisticated your IT environment. If you need help, check with your IT service provider or the BSA.

Wishing you safe passage through the IT Minefield!

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This topic is discussed in greater detail in Navigating the I.T. Minefield: Straight Talk for the Small Enterprise. To purchase your copy, please visit http://bit.ly/SNL4W.

Leslie Knight is a small business consultant with over 20 years of experience in Information Technology management in Fortune 500 companies.  She applies her experience in Corporate America saving them millions to smaller entrepreneurial enterprises. She is also the author of Navigating the I.T. Minefield.