One of the tasks with which Scott & Scott's clients most commonly request our assistance is how to conduct a software audit.

There's a new scary cousin of traditional financial audits known as the software audit.

Agreements often contain clauses allowing the parties to review books and records, "Books and Records" clauses.

Some companies may indeed benefit from working with a consultant to review software licensing and deployment practices.

I usually advise my clients to cooperate with the BSA, but to do so without compromising any legal rights.

Because this provision is a risk transfer mechanism, it is crucial to understand it and to successfully negotiate it to prevent unwanted risk.

In recent years, many software publishers began using software audits as a means to increase revenue by penalizing customers for perceived compliance issues.

The Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA) is Microsoft's preferred licensing option for businesses wanting to use Microsoft products in support of hosted software solutions made available to end users over the Internet.

Companies that have long relationships with Microsoft know that the company's form licensing agreements have steadily evolved over time, and typically for the worse.

During a merger, divestiture or acquisition, the surviving entities may have a struggle with resulting ownership of software assets.

Autodesk, like many other software publishers, are now offering subscription based licenses instead of perpetual licenses.

Microsoft, like other software publishers, routinely audits customers to help ensure that it is protecting the value of its intellectual property.

A broad license grant is often limited by license restrictions. These restrictions may include clarifications on the license grants as well as prohibitions.

Many businesses have teams of third-party vendors to assist with their business operations or to provide independent services... that require access to company servers.

The name itself sounds so powerful: Non-Disclosure Agreement. How could anything be disclosed without repercussion if you have one of these?

A recent article published by Business Insider is the latest in a run of recent media attention that Oracle has received regarding the software audit practices of its License Management Services (LMS) compliance arm.

During the software acquisition process, the parties are often ready to move past the terms of the contract and implement the software to start recognizing the benefits.

Software publishers regularly audit their customers to help ensure that the customers are properly licensing their software.

Data breaches are becoming more common among even the most secure organizations.

The Next Big Thing for audits – financial audits, at least, for the time being – is the use of artificial intelligence technologies to facilitate the analysis of large volumes of data...