Pirate Software Penalty

[Wrayvon]

Does anybody know or know where I can find out the penalty for a company (and also for an individual) using pirated software on their computers?

If you could point me in the right direction that would be grand thank you!

Also any legal issues with setting up an office network, as in certain rules that must be obeyed etc.

Many thanks people of TF

Edited January 14, 2010 by Wrayvon

[Danny]

It really depends on whos sueing and the offence. Look on google news there's various file sharers that have been taken to court recently and have ended up with ridiculous fines that they are unable to pay.

[Wrayvon]

So is there not a set minimum charge or anything? Or is that just for individuals I am thinking?

Cheers

[anzo]

Ermmm,

Legal issues, not really sure what you're asking for here the only thing I can think of is Data Protection Act - you have to ensure data is not accessable by anyone, password protection, permission settings, physical security (locks, alarms) and frequent auditing. Everything else will come into Health and Safety at Work, and you may be able to include some stuff about Local Laws with broadcasting a frequency (Wireless routers?)

Everything else pretty much comes under company policy to prevent any security issues.

Need any info hit me up a PM, I have a lot of experience with networking and policies

So is there not a set minimum charge or anything? Or is that just for individuals I am thinking?

Cheers

Not particularly, theres two extremes...me downloading a copy of Windows 98 for personal use, and me downloading and distributing Windows Server 2008 - two very difference circumstances so I don't think there will be a set minimum - how ever (needs to be confirmed) the maximum prosecution in a Majestrate court is 4 years in prison and/or a £50000 fine?

[Danny]

So is there not a set minimum charge or anything? Or is that just for individuals I am thinking?

You'll basically get sued for the software companies loss of earnings. So it really depends on the software company. I don't think there's any kind of fixed fine.

I think the music companies were sueing people like £6500 per song they shared on p2p networks because in theory if you put it on a p2p network you could have potentially shared it to 100's of people. Times that by a few hundred tracks and your talking serious money. But i guess p2p is a different kettle of fish to office use etc.

[Wrayvon]

Cheers Anzo that's really helpful!

and thanks Danny, I don't really have any specific companies to talk about, but that will be handy for some background research!

Cheers!

[Wrayvon]

Any idea on penalties for failing to comply to the data protection act?

[anzo]

Any idea on penalties for failing to comply to the data protection act?

In reply to your PM and this...

Data Protection

Failure to comply is judged on a case by case basis. Data Protection is often implimented by the Administrator but that is over looked by the Data Controller - in any good company the Data Controller role will be taken by someone who is not involved by the IT side of things, otherwise it'll be seen as bias by many auditors. So most Data Controllers are held by persons in a Human Resources role.

Data Protection covers more than just protection, it is the right to information held against yourself - for example in an IT related situation, if I were keeping data related to you personally (i.e. web usage, statistics) then you have a legal right to view that information WITHIN certain means. For example I could not give you information about yourself IF that information included details of a 3rd party - for that I would have to have permission from them to share that certain information. However, you can censor sensitive documents to protect the 3rd party.

Failure to comply usually results in a fine (in the corporate sector) - there will be many case studies out there to give an example. Of course there is failure to supply information on request, leaking information to the public accidentally and failure to keep information 'safe' in the first place. Its a complicated peice of legislation so do give an example of prosecution you'll have to be more exact in your answer.

Broadcasting Frequency

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) created the standards for wireless broadcasting within a network, these standards relate to the power of broadcasting ranges. These are (most common) 802.11a, b, g or n - the frequency laws change country by country, until about 3 years ago it was illegal to have an FM broadcaster for your iPod as it broke the law, so many people were buying them from the US.

With a network it'll always be relatively low frequency anyway, yet there will be some laws in place to control it. I'm not 100% on these so I won't quote it now incase it is wrong, but I'll check up at work tomorrow and update this post.

Again, with networking a lot of it relates to policy, best practice or ISO Standards, not really law related - of course you could include Misuse of Computers Act 1990 (forcing entry, terrorism, espionage) and also Misuse of Communications Act 2003 (telecom fraud, illegal internet access), which again can be covered in total with fraud for unauthorised use of accounts and such.

Just re-read the PM and noticed you're supposed to be setting up an office network? If so I wouldn't worry to much about the Data Protection side of things, thats for the employer to worry about - 80% of companies in the UK will not be concerned about data protection. The broadcasting law is not applicable as long as you're buying IEEE standard equipment (everything for sale in the UK).

However, if you want some information on what to be careful of, I'd be happy to help...just answer these so I can get some idea on the scale;

1. How many client machines (laptop or desktop?), how many servers?

2. What distance will the network run, a couple of offices or factory size?

3. What does the company do? (ie. accountanting, manufacturing, web based?)

4. Wired or Wireless networking?

5. Any additional equipment used? (UPS, Switches, switches, network printers?)

6. What is the server usage? (Backup, SQL, Exchange?)

If its just all basic, don't worry about too much of the things I've told you, they only account for huuuge companies that have a lot to lose with things like this - I work for Bosch and they take things like that very seriously, however a small office in a back street somewhere, it probaby won't matter so much.

Edited January 14, 2010 by anzo

[Wrayvon]

Absolute legend! Thank you.

Nice edit too! I am not actually making the network, its just theory based so we are just saying what we would propose and have to consider etc! So all the points you have made are quite relevant and quite useful! Thank you

EDIT: Don't worry about answering anything else anzo, think you have done more than enough! Got plenty to include now, thank you again.

Edited January 15, 2010 by Wrayvon

[anzo]

Glad to be of service