Microsoft is a member company of the BSA and fully supports this programme. At the same time as targeting company owners with the Software Audit Return, the BSA is asking people to come forward with information on businesses which use software illegally. Unlicensed software copying by individuals or businesses. Alternatively, in the case of volume licensees, it can mean under-reporting the number of installed copies of software. Practised by dishonest computer system builders who sell PCs with unlicensed software preinstalled.
Dealers use one copy of a program to install illegal copies on many machines.
Original disks and documentation that should come with the PC are often missing or incomplete and in many cases, where they are supplied, they are counterfeits. This is more than the poor quality gold coloured CD-ROMs that you might see at a car boot sale, market stall or computer fair. These days, this form of software theft is on a grand scale, in which software and its packaging are illegally duplicated increasingly by people involved in or with links to organised crime rings. These duplicated packages are then redistributed as the genuine article. For example, the sale of academic licences to a small business.