The SCG Blog

So You’ve Received a Letter from Software Compliance Group

July 22, 2015

Author

Jason Swan
Managing Director

   

If you received a letter from the Software Compliance Group (SCG) you are most likely a senior official in your organization. The reason for our letter is to foster constructive dialogue with your firm about a sensitive matter: unlicensed software usage.

SCG represents leading software vendors from around the globe who spend a tremendous amount of time, resources and budget to develop amazing software. Theyve made it fairly easy for current and future users to evaluate the software via evaluations, trials, freemium versions, etc.

But these vendors are also very adept at tracking the unpaid use of their software. The use of pirated versions of their applications is a sore spot for any developer. The software industry loses billions in revenue every year to pirated usage, but there are a number of different ways to identify unlicensed usage: tracking technology, audits, local knowledge, whistleblower campaigns and a few other unique techniques.

Once the users of unlicensed software are identified, our team gets involved to help facilitate the investigation and to discuss resolutions. There is always ample evidence to warrant further dialogue and investigation. We would not send you a letter if there was not a high degree of certainty of the unlicensed usage. In many cases, the people that we contact (like you) are unaware that unlicensed software is being used at their facility.

These efforts are not meritless and shouldnt be viewed as extortion. Your organization has benefitted from the use of our clients software and they deserve to be compensated. All we ask is that you work with us and allow our skilled team to share what evidence we have and help us get to the bottom of the matter. 

View & Submit Comments