How to avoid the FAST track to a criminal record

Schools use a greater range of software than any other type of organisation. Over 5000 titles are in constant use in our schools across the UK.

Some applications are very old, some are very expensive, some are free,some are very specialised others almost ubiquitous; nearly all though are subject to proprietary licences. This means quite simply that a school is breaking the law if it is in breach of the terms of the licence.

Most common violations committed by schools are the installation of upgraded software onto machines which are not included in the original licence; distribution of software to staff or students for use at home and lapsed annual fees.

Given the complexity of the software profile in schools, unless the issue is handed to a third party (usually the hardware vendor) or considerable internal resources are devoted to management of the issue you will get caught out and prosecuted quite legitimately by the Federation against Software Theft (FAST).

There is a route out of this wood. Open Source Software. Open Source Software has a completely different licence structure. The software may be sold or provided free (most usually) but can be freely distributed quite legally to whosoever wishes to use it. In addition it comes with the source code and can be modified, customised, to suit the end user's needs if wished.

OSS has excellent equivalents to MS Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint, Outlook, to Adobe's Acrobat, Distiller, Photoshop and PageMaker to name just a few.

So our advice is when you audit your proprietary software, which you will have to do, that you look for Open Source equivalents and start to unlock yourselves from the nightmare. Where do I get information about OSS contact us.

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