This blog is written by Steve Vondran, Esq. IP & Software Lawyer specializing in software piracy and compliance cases which are enforced under the provisions of the United States Copyright Law. Mr. Vondran is the founder of the Copyright Policy Institute in Washington D.C., a non-profit copyright law and policy thinktank.
Having handled nearly a 1,000 software compliance audits with copyright clients large and small, I am setting forth my findings of the best to the worst companies, in my opinion, in terms of fairness, undue aggressiveness, questionable licensing compliance practices, EULA fairness, and professionalism of their staff/enforcement team. Here is my finding for calendar year 2023.
From Best to Worst (remember, this is only my opinion):
1. Siemens – the clear winner. While they find infringements with the best of them, they are not so punitive as to turn off their paying customers and future customers. They seem to understand that people download (often expensive software) to see what it looks like, to see if their computer will support it, to get anxious about using it in the future. While they can certainly be tough on infringement cases, and do extract penalties, this is a good company with good leadership and an excellent staff of attorneys.
2. Solidworks/Dassault – a close second. Solidworks deals with a ton of infringement because many people love their software, however, like Siemens, for many it is very expensive and hard to know if it works for you without giving it a go in real life. Yes, I know, there are other options to try things out, but let’s face it, software gets passed around like a whiskey bottle at a frat party. Nonetheless, I find Solidworks/Dassault to be a very reasonable company in their enforcement of their intellectual property rights. They are usually willing to look at, and understand the circumstances leading up top infringement, and are pretty fair in getting cases resolved.
3. Ansys – A bit tough, but flashes of fairness: In third position this year is Ansys. They also have very expensive software that students and unemployed professionals like to download and install usually for curiosity as to the features, graphic user interface, ease of use and viability for the future. Ansys, like Siemens, have been known to file mass software piracy lawsuits in Texas federal court against various “John Doe” Defendants. They use the courts to obtain the name of the offender from the internet service provider (“ISP”) and then move forward from there. Usually, they will dismiss the federal court lawsuit, and then pursue the best of the best leads as far as I can tell. They can be very tough, but their law firm is both tough and fair, which I respect, so they come in at #3 for 2023.
4. Microsoft – Overly Aggressive. Most of Microsoft’s audits were run through the business software alliance (“BSA”). The BSA would hit SUPER HARD and SUPER HIGH and aggressive for violations that were, in my mind, minimal compared to the damages being sought. Once covid hit, the BSA dropped out of the game, and I believe Microsoft may be working on a new groundbreaking piracy enforcement application on the Ethereum
blockchain called Argus. Read my blog here which has a video as well. We will see, but outside this, Microsoft’s BSA agents were tough, and demand would in the several hundreds of thousands of dollars even for mere overuse of multiple Office products, Windows, and insufficient CAL licenses.
5. Autodesk – I would take my chances with Rhino or other software. Autodesk is unfortunately my nemesis. They like to track (paid clients) and find out if they are “over assigning” single user licenses. This is not hard to find since their software ACTUALLY ALLOWS YOU TO DO THIS without any warning or any prohibition (they have told me they cannot fix this – YEAH RIGHT). Then, once you get on their “compliance radar” a whole team comes after you seeking to sell products and they basically treat GOOD PAYING CLIENTS like they were criminals, in my opinion. They will point to their EULA and demand that companies BUY MORE SOFTWARE EVEN IF THEY DON’T NEED IT because “it says so in our EULA.” This is Autodesk internal that I am talking about. Their law firm in the Bay Area has a fine lawyer that is tough, but fair, but dealing with their internal team is a dog and pony show designed to get even paying clients to pay more for things they do not need, and did not understand in the first place since their software allowed them to do what they are being accused of doing. Not a fan of this company at all. Clear last place finisher in my book. Hope you guys fix this over-assigning problem.
This is not an exclusive list, but my top five rankings.
