There is a set of related questions our software-audit clients
frequently ask us that boil down to variations on one or more of
the following: Why am I being audited? What if anything did I do to
cause this? How can I avoid it in the future?
Unfortunately, those questions often do not have clear
answers.
Most software publishers offer little, meaningful information
regarding their criteria for initiating audits of their customers.
Any publisher will initiate a review if it receives information
indicating that software is being used without sufficient licenses
rights. However, while that model may be standard for audits
initiated by BSA | The Software Alliance ("BSA") or by
the Software & Information Industry Association
("SIIA"), it likely is not the norm for the majority of
publisher-initiated audits. Most publishers will tell you that
their standard procedures result in all of their customers
eventually being audited, and that, in effect, it is just a matter
of
