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Software licensing audit

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22: 265:(BSA) as a means of providing an industry approach to control piracy, counterfeiting, and illegal use of software. They publicize campaigns against illegal use of software and reward any employees who notify them of any breaches which result in successful prosecution and/or recovery of license fees. 232:
The audit process itself should be a continuing action, and modern SAM software identifies what is installed, where it is installed, its usage, and provides a reconciliation of this discovery against usage. This is a very useful means of controlling software installations and lowering the costs of
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Software asset management is a comprehensive strategy that has to be addressed from top to bottom in an organization to be effective, to minimize risk. A software compliance audit is an important sub-set of software asset management and is covered in the above referenced standards. At its simplest
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Finally, some software packages may internally contain fragments of the source code (such as source code of the Oracle Java) that may be provided only for reference or have various other licenses, not necessary compatible with the internal policies of the company. If the software team actually does
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The primary benefits a corporation receives from performing a software licensing audit are greater control and various forms of cost savings. The audit is used both as an efficiency mechanism to improve software distribution within an organization and as a preventative mechanism to avoid copyright
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From time to time internal or external (by major accounting firms) audits may take a forensic approach to establish what is installed on the computers in an organization with the purpose of ensuring that it is all legal and authorized and to ensure that its process of processing transactions or
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If the auditing company self-dependently scans the code base, one of the serious challenges is the license changes between versions. Some software libraries start with one license and later switch into another. The typical examples are switching from the single permissive license to the dual
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All these issues are relatively easy to resolve if the auditing group cooperates with the software team that normally should know the used versions and so on. If the software team is not trusted, an incompetent audit may find many "inconsistencies" and "violations" where there are not any.
167:). In such cases it is not enough to detect that some library or code fragment has been used - an exact used version must be correctly identified. Further difficulties may arise if the library owner removes the obsolete versions (that were under different license) from the public sources. 174:) have very different conditions for the simple linking and creating of the derivative works. In such case the proper audit must take into consideration if the library has been linked or the derivative work (custom branch) has been created. 126:
is an important sub-set of software asset management and component of corporate risk management. When a company is unaware of what software is installed and being used on its machines, it can result in multiple layers of exposure.
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due to use of unlicensed software. Most vendors permit the company to settle without prosecution though in serious cases, prosecutions certainly occur. In addition with a strict software usage policy the risk of
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events is correct. Though one might be confronted with a software vendor audit by fair contractual and legal means, one should know and reserve one's crucial rights in an audit situation as well.
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infringement prosecution by software companies. Software licensing audits are an important part of software asset management, but also serve as a method of corporate
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not use (or even is not aware) about such fragments, this must be viewed differently from the case if they would be directly linked.
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Identifying gaps that may exist between what exists on the installations, and the licenses possessed, and the rights of usage.
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Software audits are a component of corporate risk management, and they certainly minimize the risk of prosecution for
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licensing. Large organizations could not do this without discovery and inventory applications.
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licensing model (the choice between strong reciprocal or paid commercial) as for
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Recording the results in a centralized location with Proof Of Purchase records.
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by ensuring that the company is operating within legal and ethical guidelines.
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Software asset management is an organization process, which is outlined in
378:"Vendor Audit – Top 10 Customer Rights From Announcement To Settlement" 164: 219:
Verifying the Software Assets including licenses, usage, and rights.
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are minimized by preventing uncontrolled software copying.
163:) and open sourcing the previously commercial code (as for 380:. OMTCO Operations Management Technology Consulting GmbH 295:
Australian Software Asset Management Association (ASAMA)
294: 46:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. 257:Vendors subscribe to organizations such as the 290:International Organization for Standardization 285:Software and Information Industry Association 8: 138:Software audits should not be confused with 106:Learn how and when to remove this message 306: 7: 44:adding citations to reliable sources 200:-1. It is also now embraced within 216:Identification of Software Assets. 14: 259:Federation Against Software Theft 225:Taking action to close any gaps. 20: 142:, which are carried out on the 31:needs additional citations for 1: 315:"Software License Management" 406:Information technology audit 212:it involves the following: 422: 280:Business Software Alliance 263:Business Software Alliance 189: 55:"Software licensing audit" 192:Software asset management 186:Software asset management 124:software compliance audit 120:software licensing audit 146:of a software project. 242:copyright infringement 133:reputation management 357:"ISO/IEC 17799:2005" 336:"ISO/IEC 27001:2005" 170:Some licenses (like 40:improve this article 116: 115: 108: 90: 413: 390: 389: 387: 385: 374: 368: 367: 365: 364: 353: 347: 346: 344: 343: 332: 326: 325: 323: 322: 311: 247:computer viruses 111: 104: 100: 97: 91: 89: 48: 24: 16: 421: 420: 416: 415: 414: 412: 411: 410: 396: 395: 394: 393: 383: 381: 376: 375: 371: 362: 360: 355: 354: 350: 341: 339: 334: 333: 329: 320: 318: 313: 312: 308: 303: 275:License manager 271: 261:(FAST) and the 255: 194: 188: 152: 112: 101: 95: 92: 49: 47: 37: 25: 12: 11: 5: 419: 417: 409: 408: 398: 397: 392: 391: 369: 348: 327: 305: 304: 302: 299: 298: 297: 292: 287: 282: 277: 270: 267: 254: 251: 230: 229: 226: 223: 220: 217: 190:Main article: 187: 184: 151: 148: 114: 113: 28: 26: 19: 13: 10: 9: 6: 4: 3: 2: 418: 407: 404: 403: 401: 379: 373: 370: 358: 352: 349: 337: 331: 328: 316: 310: 307: 300: 296: 293: 291: 288: 286: 283: 281: 278: 276: 273: 272: 268: 266: 264: 260: 253:Organizations 252: 250: 248: 243: 238: 234: 227: 224: 221: 218: 215: 214: 213: 209: 207: 206:ISO/IEC 17799 203: 202:ISO/IEC 27001 199: 198:ISO/IEC 19770 193: 185: 183: 179: 175: 173: 168: 166: 162: 158: 149: 147: 145: 141: 136: 134: 128: 125: 121: 110: 107: 99: 88: 85: 81: 78: 74: 71: 67: 64: 60: 57: –  56: 52: 51:Find sources: 45: 41: 35: 34: 29:This article 27: 23: 18: 17: 382:. Retrieved 372: 361:. Retrieved 351: 340:. Retrieved 330: 319:. Retrieved 309: 256: 239: 235: 231: 210: 195: 180: 176: 169: 153: 137: 129: 123: 119: 117: 102: 93: 83: 76: 69: 62: 50: 38:Please help 33:verification 30: 317:. Dell KACE 161:Qt Extended 144:source code 140:code audits 363:2008-03-23 342:2008-03-23 321:2012-07-06 301:References 150:Challenges 66:newspapers 96:July 2007 400:Category 269:See also 165:OpenJDK 80:scholar 384:4 June 359:. 2005 338:. 2005 82:  75:  68:  61:  53:  157:iText 87:JSTOR 73:books 386:2013 172:LGPL 59:news 122:or 42:by 402:: 118:A 388:. 366:. 345:. 324:. 109:) 103:( 98:) 94:( 84:· 77:· 70:· 63:· 36:.

Index


verification
improve this article
adding citations to reliable sources
"Software licensing audit"
news
newspapers
books
scholar
JSTOR
Learn how and when to remove this message
reputation management
code audits
source code
iText
Qt Extended
OpenJDK
LGPL
Software asset management
ISO/IEC 19770
ISO/IEC 27001
ISO/IEC 17799
copyright infringement
computer viruses
Federation Against Software Theft
Business Software Alliance
License manager
Business Software Alliance
Software and Information Industry Association
International Organization for Standardization

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