One of the earliest types of activities I did with regard to compliance was a desktop computer-by-computer audit of a subsidiary that my employer at the time had just acquired. This was in the first half of the 1990’s. I found one licensed copy each of around 15 different software programs they used for business. I found anywhere from 25 to 150 copies of each of the software packages throughout the organization. At that time it was common for businesses to be unaware of software licensing requirements. However, I did find a few cases of folks who had actually tried to make a profit off the copies by selling them to friends.

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