Licences

[witch]

I have been tasked with sorting out the school software to put on our new server and network.

I have been through all my licences and have found that quite a lot of software (which predates my working here) is inadequately licensed for the whole network.

To be honest, I suspected that this was the case but I didn't look into it. :oops:

Now what do I do?

Is everyone vigilant about software licences? I will find out what the upgrades will cost but I know this is going to be a problem. The SMT will ask me if any external checks have ever been done re: the licence situation and indeed if anyone has ever been prosecuted for having inadequate licensing on old software.

What is my position if they insist I should go ahead anyway?

[plexer]

Explain to them that the Head will be prosecuted and as a professional you cannot allow them to be inadequatley licenced.

 

Ben

[CyberNerd]

What is my position if they insist I should go ahead anyway?

 

Get it in writing that thety are asking you to break the law. While your there, ask if you're allowed to sell drugs/stolen property to the kids - you might be make some extra cash 8O

[Uraken]

This is the one area you must remain seamless in, (your job ultimately depends on it) its expensive and a pain in the a**e but you must pay for what you use otherwise its theft. Put you foot down and get upto date SMT will respect your integrity if nothing else.

[MkII]

Of course you'll never get anything in writing to say 'break the law' but saying it, and in front of a witness covers you legally afaik. You could follow that up with a confirmation memo.

[Gatt]

I was in the same situation this time last year when i discovered we were not licenced at all for any of our software..

 

In the end I did the Memo to Head, Head of ICT and Director of Educational Resources.. - I won

 

Well, we're still lacking but im going to sort this this year

[amacken]

Let them know that all it takes is one disgruntled member of staff to make an anonymous phone call, and potentially the school will have all its hardware removed and the Head will face a possible prison sentence.

[witch]

Thanks - but does anyone have evidence that anyone has been prosecuted?

[Geoff]

Such incidents tend not to be widely publicized to save embarrassment. It's bad PR for the schools and the software companies.

 

I have it on good authority that it has happened here in Lancs in the past though. We have standing orders not to let BSA representatives onsite under any circumstances as a result.

[_Bat_]

I'm in a similar sitatuon myself. Near the end of last year I attempted to go through all our documentation for licenses, but after about a week I gave up.

 

We have a lot of documents regarding licenses in the office, plus a few references for licenses of which the details are stored online. A lot of it seems to be duplicate data and even if it wasn't, from the information I could find we were under licensed for what we had.

 

I'm well aware not all the licenses we have are documented because my network manager told me he had bought 16 licenses for microsoft office which I couldn't find anywhere.

 

My network manager knows little more about the licenses then I do. As he works for nine schools, it would be unfair to have expected him to look after the licenses, the office in this school has always been more in charge of it before I came. Yet it seems that they didn't receive details for half of our licenses in the first place for whatever reason.

 

So now I am in the situation of suspecting we are not fully licensed but no way of actually finding out (that I can see). There is no company I can e-mail to find out as the licenses have all been purchased by different people from different places. Some of these people have since left the school.

 

I want to look into it again and see if I can get anywhere, but I got so confused and fustrated by what was going on last time that i'm not sure where to start.

 

Has anyone has any similar experiences and how they tackled it?

[localzuk]

I am going to be tackling this very issue over the next month or so. I think we are pretty good though, just over on a few bits and pieces - but we should be able to sort that out next financial year.

[russdev]

Yes school close to here got in trouble a few years back and needless to say a direct madrate came down from lea to make sure we were are all up to date.

 

My advice is is head says not do anything about it then say if that's case then you be forced to put in writing. What you should be doing and that been told not to which will be cc'ed to governors.

 

Always send it to more than one person cover your back.

 

Russ