how to respond to bsa without a lawyer

What happens if you don’t respond to a BSA letter?

Mar 12, 2016 · The typical legal demand letter from the BSA or SIIA will ask you to audit SOME or ALL of their member’s software. When they ask you …

What is a legal demand letter from the BSA?

Jul 12, 2016 · There are two important considerations when responding to the BSA | The Software Alliance that can help resolve the matter with the least costs and least amount of time. 1. Work Product Doctrine and Attorney-Client Priviledge. Hiring an attorney is one of the most important considerations even if a business fully understands the circumstances.

What is a BSA audit letter?

The BSA or Autodesk audit demand letter should be taken as a "wake up call" and every company should take measures to beef up its SAM (software asset management) practices to ensure all software is properly licensed, not pirated, and all receipts and proofs of purchase are accounted for. This will reduce legal exposure in the long run.

When to buy or uninstall software after a BSA audit?

Sep 30, 2013 · Some Tips On How to Respond to a BSA Audit Letter 1. Do not ignore the letter. These audits are not scams. Businesses get fined ever day for software piracy. Ignoring it will only make the problem worse. 2. Do not destroy or delete software. This should go without saying, but many people tend to want to get rid of the evidence.

What happens if you don't respond to a BSA letter?

Failing to respond to a letter from the BSA, SIIA, or software publisher, will likely make your problems worse and could include litigation against you and your company. The date at the top of your letter from the BSA | The Software Alliance is a very important date. This date which is known as the audit effective date is critical because it is the only date that matters for purposes of comparing your software deployments on that date to the purchases you made prior to that date.

What are the legal issues involved in software piracy audits?

There are many legal issues involved in software piracy audits including what constitutes infringement, who has the burden of proof, how damages should be calculated, what constitutes proof of ownership and many others. These legal points should be vigorously argued in an effort to reduce software piracy settlement demands.

What is a spoliation notice?

Legally, the notice regarding preserving evidence is called a spoliation notice. If BSA audit cases cannot be settled out for court, the issue of evidence preservation is likely to be an issue in the court case. Targets of BSA | The Software Alliance audits need experienced counsel to guide through the balancing act of preserving evidence ...

What is network discovery tool?

Network discovery tools are a necessary part of an internal investigation related to BSA | The Software Alliance cases. While these tools can be very helpful, the raw data they produce is some time inaccurate and may damages to your legal position in a BSA audit case. More often than not, they fail to exclude information outside the scope of the audit request. It is important to carefully interpret the discovery tool data comparing it not only to the entitlement records that the BSA will accept as proofs as well as applying sometimes complex licensing rules including those affording downgrade rights as well as the right to deploy on multiple devises for a single license. The licensing rule frequently require an understanding of the precise use case which discovery tools are completely incapable of evaluating. Consider your discovery data a starting point for an analysis not the final work-product.

Is an attorney supervised audit report protected?

An attorney-supervised audit report is protected by attorney-client and attorney work-product privileges. In addition, if you use an outside vendor for IT services it is important to insure that the vendor has an NDA in place before any BSA audit case related information is shared with the vendor.

What does BSA do?

The BSA partners with local lawyers in each country to contact businesses that it suspects have used its members’ software products without proper licences. Generally, the BSA will contact a business after receiving a report alleging that the business is using unauthorised copies of software.

What is software audit?

What is a software audit? After setting out an allegation of unauthorised software use, a letter from the BSA will generally request the business to provide information about the software products installed on its computers. Providing this information will require the business to conduct an audit of its software.

Does the BSA have lawyers?

The BSA will always have lawyers acting for them, so it is easy to feel a bit out of your depth. For information about fines and settlement offers, check out Part 2. If you need assistance deciding how to respond to a letter from the BSA, it is best to speak with a lawyer.

Frank Wei-Hong Chen

There are different ways of responding to a complaint in a business litigation lawsuit. In some instances, in a state court lawsuit, it might be appropriate to file a demurrer and/or motion to strike. In other instances, you need to file an answer or a verified answer.

Daniel Sage Ward

First, I AM NOT LICENSED TO PRACTICE IN CALIFORNIA. I need to get that out of the way.

Pamela Koslyn

Your court fees are only $1200 if you're responding for 3 parties, and if that's the case, then that's what it costs for the 1st appearance fee.#N#You haven't provided any facts about the claim so it's hard to know how to respond to this. Theoretically, you should file and serve an answer that denies the...

What to do after filing a lawsuit?

After you've filed your lawsuit, you have to notify the other side about it using a legal process server before the court will hear the case. You may use the U.S. marshal to serve your federal lawsuit, or you can use a private process serving company. You also may be able to use certified mail.

What happens if you don't show up for court?

Many jurisdictions simply assign you a trial date when you file a small claim, so if you don't show up on that date, you lose your case. Some jurisdictions add a "first appearance" date that you don't need to show up for, only the person you're suing does.

How much does it cost to file a lawsuit in federal court?

You'll have to scan in your signed documents and send them to the email address provided in your pro se manual. You'll have to pay a filing fee of $400 to initiate your lawsuit in federal court.

Who is Jennifer Mueller?

Jennifer Mueller is an in-house legal expert at wikiHow. Jennifer reviews, fact-checks, and evaluates wikiHow's legal content to ensure thoroughness and accuracy. She received her JD from Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 2006.

What are some examples of family courts?

For example, probate courts deal with wills, trusts, and estate matters. Family courts deal with family law issues such as divorce and child custody.

Do you have to file a complaint before going to court?

Exhaust all other remedies before going to court. In many federal cases, you are required to file a complaint or charge with a federal agency before filing suit in federal court.

Can you ask for more than the maximum amount of a small claim?

Make sure your claim falls within the court's limits. Small claims courts are courts of limited jurisdiction, so you cannot ask for more than the maximum amount the court has the power to order.