DRM News

Often times, home PC users and gamers seem to adopt a bit of an attitude of “Why are these big software companies always coming after me?” And the answer from a lot of businesses would be something akin to “Get over yourself, sweetheart. You aren’t alone.”

Yes, as the economy has taken a downward turn, it seems that software company auditors are launching a full court press to exploit every single fine print loophole in contracts with businesses in order to drum up further license sales.

Software auditors are the guys who go in to businesses with whom their firms have contracts and ensure that those contracts are being followed to the letter. That includes making sure that every single copy of software made by that developer that is in use at those businesses has actually been licensed from the developer. They’re also checking for any product usage that falls outside the agreement signed between the companies.

Doug Jones, an analyst for Business Research firm Forrester, had this to say :

“The better vendors are like those traffic police that prevent speeding by being highly visible – they focus on encouraging and supporting good software asset management (SAM),” said Jones. “But others seem to be like the revenue-generating cops who hide with their radar guns in bushes at the bottom of steep hills.”

As Jones highlights, abuse of this process can have a detrimental effect on organisations’ client relationships. “Often, compliance teams over-zealously pursue their own revenue targets outside of the main account team’s control, oblivious to how the audit team’s behaviour may be the damaging long-term relationship with that customer,” he explained.

And one of the biggest users of ‘gotchas’ in licensing agreements is none other than Microsoft.

CEO Steve Ballmer was asked by one business user in London if there were any plans to simplify license agreements and help remove the red tape and loopholes often found within. Not only did Ballmer shoot down any idea of simplification, he also confessed that many of those ‘gotcha’ type loopholes were planned from the start as ways to increase revenue from businesses.

“I don’t anticipate a big round of simplification,” Ballmer said. “Whenever you simplify you get rid of something.”

He admitted that some of the caveats in the fine print “gotchas” in licences are “deliberate”. Users wanting simplification are actually asking for price cuts, while Microsoft  shareholders would prefer that any simplification kept prices higher, he said (especially as Microsoft revenues have declined of late).

Nobody denies that a software company has a right to be paid for the results of their work. And certainly, times are tough for every development firm out there right now. However, trying to recover that shortfall at the expense (literally) of customers, many of them also facing financial issues due to the recession, seems to be an incredibly short sighted response.