The local chapter of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) is spending millions of rands on an advertising campaign designed to show that it is getting tough on unlicensed software, but says it is not about to get aggressive about it.
The group of developers, which includes the likes of Microsoft, Symantec and the local Softline Group, would not reveal the exact budget for the campaign but says the "couple of million" represents a large part of its available resources.
The promotion has already seen TV ads with the payoff line: "Call us for advice or risk losing everything." About 26 000 direct mailings will be sent to decision-makers at companies and consultancy KPMG will conduct personal visits to 2 000 companies either randomly drawn or identified by BSA members as potential offenders.
The campaign is to continue during 2003.
The general idea, says new BSA chairman Andrew Lindstrom, who is also country manager for Adobe, is to move into the next phase now that education around software piracy has been successful.
"We are now instituting a policy of non-tolerance," he says. "We are ramping it up and taking it to a new level and we will start litigating in a big way."
The BSA says a conservative estimate is that 38% of software used in SA is unlicensed. Yet its research has shown that only among consumers that do not own a PC is there a less than 97% awareness of the need to license commercial software.
"People believe ignorance is an excuse but it is not," says Lindstrom.
Although the advertising campaign is by no means subtle, with the TV ad implying businesses are destroyed through neglecting licences and the direct mailing campaign imitating a warrant, the group says it is not turning aggressive. Offenders that approach the BSA for help will not be sued for damages.
On the other hand, the group says it "will not hesitate" to litigate against the "less co-operative" and it continues to offer rewards of up to R20 000 for the testimony of anyone who can finger offenders.
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