UNLV careful about software licensing

Debra D. Bass

Friday, Sept. 19, 1997 | 10:04 a.m.

In light of a national investigation that could cost Community College of Southern Nevada hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for pirated software, UNLV is taking a look at its own policies.

"Anytime something like this hits the media, it makes an organization look at itself to make sure we're doing everything we possibly can to guard against that," said Lori Temple, director of academic computing.

CCSN got into trouble for not keeping track of what was being installed on faculty and administrative desktop computers, in classrooms and computer labs.

CCSN turned in

Likely on a tip from a current or former employee, the college was reported to the Software Publishers Association, based in Washington, D.C. The copyright watchdog agency then contacted the college with a cooperative offer letter.

"In lieu of a lawsuit, we generally prefer to have a cooperative arrangement, which means they do an audit and tell us what they find," said Peter Beruk, director of the software association's domestic anti-piracy division.

In most cases, Beruk said, it's not a matter of the college or institution coordinating an organized effort to pirate software, but more an individual effort that gets out of hand.

One person buys a piece of software like Microsoft Office and installs it on their computer, which is in compliance with copyright laws, then another person seizes the opportunity to "borrow" the installation disk, which is in violation of the law. The situation generally snowballs from there. Depending on how manufacturers have packaged their software, one installation disk can be used on hundreds of terminals.

"But software manufacturers are getting smarter, making it more difficult to install their software without registration numbers," Temple said.

She said UNLV protects itself by issuing frequent warnings and conducting periodic audits.

"We're real careful. Sure it happens, but we try to keep everyone informed to decrease the incidence of it happening," Temple said.

She said university technicians also make a habit of scanning software installed on individual terminals whenever they go around to install newly approved and licensed software on department machines. If they see something that's not the property of the university, she said, they ask for licenses, and if none can be produced that software is deleted.

The difficulty in policing campuses is that educators buy lots of software for themselves in specialized areas. Temple said it's a different story in student computer labs, where the university keeps close tabs on what is and is not licensed and authorized.

Labs were new

The community college didn't have such tight restrictions, partly because the labs were so new to campus.

Beruk said investigations on universities and colleges are a rarity because they generally buy site licenses for particular software, which means they can be installed on any computer on site. Compliance is always cheaper than getting caught red-handed, Beruk said.

For each software violation, the college can rack up $100,000 in fines for copyright infringement. The investigation at CCSN, which will look at how many different software items were pirated, will take about six months.