Vigilant monitoring of the BSA’s member list can help you protect your business from unneeded expense associated with a BSA-initiated software audit. The BSA member list changes as software publishers are added to and removed from the BSA’s publicly available list of member software publishers.
Most recently, the newest software publisher to join the BSA is Sheba Distribution, a division of Garmin Ltd., producer of the popular Garmin navigation and communication devices. Avid, EMC Corporation, Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC), and Synopsys have been removed from the BSA member list. Avid publishes popular video and media editing software such as Media Composer Mojo and Symphony Nitris. Avid also owns media and graphics software companies Digidesign, Pinnacle Systems, M-Audio, Sibelius, Sundance Digital, and formerly, Soft Image. EMC Corporation is a technology company offering a range of network, data recovery, and information management products and consulting services. EMC also owns virtual machine software company VMWare. PTC publishes the popular engineering design software PRO/Engineer. Synopsys publishes software and offers services used in the semiconductor industry.
A BSA audit can be a costly engagement for any business. Maintaining software license compliance will help prevent your business from exposing itself to the unneeded expense of a lawsuit or settlement with the BSA. Businesses that do not manage their licenses and installations on an ongoing basis by performing self-audits may find themselves performing an audit in the context of a BSA matter. Businesses should strongly consider deploying software audit solutions that manage both their installations and licenses and protect the information under an attorney-client privilege.
To view the current list of BSA members, click here.