By: Mark Fitzgerald Newspapers Were Fined For Duplicating Software
As the publishers of nine small weeklies among the shrinking farm towns of North Dakota, Jill Denning Gackle and her husband, Mike, hardly fit the image of software pirates. But the Gackles have learned the hard way that anyone can become a pirate - or "softlifter," as some in the industry call it - by duplicating popular word-processing and graphics programs for their own businesses without bothering to get additional licenses.
Acting on a tip from a disgruntled employee, an industry group the Gackles had never heard of, the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA), ordered an audit of the papers' 35 computers, multiplied the number of unlicensed copies they found by two times the suggest retail price of the programs - and socked the couple with a fine for $120,000. That's more than six of their papers gross in an entire year.
Other newspapers - at least 40 at the time the North Dakota papers were targeted - have faced similar accusations, but Jill Gackle is the first newspaper executive to write about the ordeal, which ended with a confidential settlement. Her book "Slapped Hard for 'Softlifting'" is both a cautionary tale and guide to avoiding piracy problems.
(One bit of advice: Hire wisely, fire kindly.) It's available by mail order at (800) 658-3485.
Mark Fitzgerald (mfitzgerald@editorandpublisher.com) is editor at large for E&P.
Copyright 2000, Editor & Publisher.
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