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Home / Blog / The Software & Information Industry Association: Who Are They and Why Did They Send Me a Letter?

The Software & Information Industry Association: Who Are They and Why Did They Send Me a Letter?

January 28, 2013 by Dorman Bell, LLP     Filed Under: Blog

Who is the Software & Information Industry Association?

The Software & Information Industry Association (“SIIA”), like the Business Software Alliance (“BSA”), is a trade association for the software and digital content industry whose primary goal is to protect its members from copyright infringement otherwise known as software piracy. SIIA has hundreds of company members including Adobe, Autodesk, McAfee, Oracle, and Symantec.

The Software & Information Industry Association runs a piracy hotline that allows callers to confidentially report suspected incidents of software piracy. It also maintains a website with online reporting features that make exposing piracy a simple task. SIIA has launched lawsuits all over the country against companies who have been audited for unlicensed software use and in some cases, SIIA has worked with government officials to bring forth criminal charges.
Why did SIIA send me a letter?

If you receive a letter from the Software and Information Industry Association it is the result of the SIIA receiving a tip from a source, which they believe to be credible, that your company is infringing upon the software licenses of one or more of their members. Most reports to the SIIA are made as a means of reprisal by disgruntled former employees whose company has recently let them go. As incentive to these whistle-blowers, the Software & Information Industry Association offers a reward of up to $1,000,000.00 for reliable reports. In 2007 alone, the SIIA issued 26 rewards to individuals who reported incidents of corporate end-user software piracy.

In most letters, SIIA requests the company to conduct a voluntary audit that often exposes unlicensed software programs on company computers. The Software & Information Industry Association requires the company to produce the results of this software audit paired with sales receipts and invoices that indicate the date the software was purchased, so that the SIIA can calculate a fine for any software that the company fails to prove that it licensed to SIIA standards.
If an audit reveals severe compliance problems, the company needs legal advice on what to do. The attorneys at Dorman Bell have worked with clients on reacting to letters from the Software and Information Industry Association as well as negotiating settlements for compliance issues. With over twenty years of software development and software license experience, our attorneys can facilitate a software compliance audit that can maximize a company’s software licenses as well as minimize potential future exposure to the SIIA.

For more information, call us at (214) 736-7168 or visit our contact page and we will get back with you as soon as possible. Our extensive background and experience will benefit you and we look forward to serving you!

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