Small businesses 'at risk of using illegal software'

Small businesses are more susceptible to using illegal software than larger firms‚ it has been claimed.

A lack of resources means that small businesses are more at risk of using illegal software than their larger counterparts, one expert has warned.

Julian Swan, EMEA director of compliance marketing for the Business Software Alliance (BSA), said many small companies are simply unable to carry out the necessary checks on all software on every computer within their business.

He said this may explain why, in research published by the BSA, London was found to have the highest software piracy rate of any other region in the UK, as there are more small businesses operating in the capital.

"To be fair to London, it does have a lot of large businesses and large businesses are often well managed but, equally, it has a huge kind of entrepreneurial, small business ethos as well," Mr Swan explained.

"Small businesses are particularly susceptible to using unlicensed software because they don't have big IT departments, they don't have compliance, which for, say, a large financial organisation, is very much part of what it does on a daily basis," he added.

The BSA found that one in five software programmes in London are being used illegally, with businesses installing around £149 million worth of pirated software each year.

It is now launching a new awareness campaign in the capital similar to previous initiatives organised in other cities such as Manchester and Glasgow, where the intellectual property issue has been a problem.

London firms will be offered software health checks to ensure they are using licensed programmes. They will also be given information about the implications of using illegal software, both on their business and the wider economy.