Definition: “Belligerence”
- aggressive or warlike in nature.
“…your belligerence is commendable…”
This discussion is a result of a LinkedIn post regarding a shortage in skilled SAM practitioners. Not sure how we moved to this topic but my reply was too in-depth for the LinkedIn word count.
Thanks, Paul! Just so
you understand, this has been an enjoyable interaction. I genuinely wish we
could all sit down as a group & discuss these topics – without interference
from the software industry players & their friends. Unfortunately, these
groups have managed to divide the business technology consumers so that very
little coordinated resolutions will be forthcoming anytime soon.
Let’s take your questions one at a time:
It never ceases to astound me how many people perceive
anyone who pushes back at the predatory software industry enforcement groups as
belligerent. A majority of licenses is specifically designed to be nearly
impossible to comply with; license terms & conditions can be changed at
will, as frequently as desired, and with little or no notification to the
consumer; online licenses are intentionally designed to be nearly impossible to
read as well as impossible to print and those of us who speak out against such
sharp practices are belligerent? Gee… I guess that would be me, except I have
spent years trying – and failing – at the “Renaissance man” approach.
It’s
beyond time that our IT execs & the CEOs/CFOs woke up to discover that it’ll
be THEIR names on the non compliance settlement papers. Has anyone READ
Sarbanes Oxley or related due diligence regulations? It is beyond time to haul
our heads out of that fascinating hole and lead with intelligent awareness.
“…with your process how do you propose to deal with a CEO of
an End User who is looking for compliance when his view follows the logic that
he does not need to understand electricity to be able to turn a light on and
off…”
My clear statement for over a decade has been to require the
enforcement industry to publish their audit process, their audit results, and
their audit records. As long as these people continue to intentionally hide
audit activities – humorously entitling them as “educational”, our executives
will never become well aware of the entire range of compliance issues.
Example: Even while “advertising” their $1,000,000 whistle-blower
reward programs, the US enforcement groups are actually only handing out around
$4,500 in rewards in less than a tenth of the audit action events. Very few people will actually read the fine print in the
offer, or actually hear the whispered “up to” in the heavily published ads. In fact, sincewe began teaching SAMs to track enforcement industry press releases, those releases are becoming more & more difficult to locate. (I wonder why?)
I’m sorry but, if a CEO, or any C-suite executive of even a
partially sophisticated enterprise is still unaware of at least the fringes of the
license compliance environment, they do not belong in their position. At the
next level of the org chart, if the IT people, or purchasing, or whoever is
working with the licenses is not aware enough to communicate the issues to the
C-suite, then THEY do not belong in their position. Let’s see… The real world
demonstrates that license compliance & audit costs are serious business &
ethical issues. One would reasonably believe that genuine leaders, not
figureheads, should be aware of the topics by now.
Example: Any effective captain of a ship is trained &
capable of a clear awareness of all aspects of operating & managing that
ship. They even know better than to stick a screw driver into a live electrical
outlet. That’s called leadership and it’s in rather short supply.
“Why over complicate an issue when we should be feeding the ‘need
to be compliant’ story at the User end rather than creating confusion and
complexity at the MSP end….”
Precisely “who” is going to “feed” this information to the
end users? I recognize that MSPs are relatively new on the scene but if they
cannot fully define their industry perhaps they shouldn’t be in that industry
in the first place. In order to sell in a managed service, shouldn’t a key
performance indicator be to educate the buyers of root cause & critical
underlying operational issues? We can bet the enforcement industry isn’t going
to “educate” the end user – there’s WAY too much money to be made in conducting
punitive audits for the auditing groups to deliver any thoroughly meaningful
awareness campaign.
Example: SAM training programs that are managed by, or reliant
upon, the software or enforcement industry players do not teach SAMs how to
negotiate audit clauses OUT of licenses. Most of these same programs don’t even
discuss negotiating agreements for more favorable terms. And THESE SAMs are the
“qualified people” that IT Directors have to call upon for advice?
How many people are aware that the generations &
industries who are responsible for a majority of incorrectly licensed products
being used on systems are also the most “educated” generations on the planet. The
average sixth grader probably knows more about piracy and copyright than our
average executive? (Now THAT is scary.) Since the software industry, recording
industry, video industry & general copyright enforcement industry began
their “education” campaign, incorrectly licensed software & other copyright
violation use has soared.
Example: These problems aren’t easy to resolve. However,
when a clear majority of end users cannot understand the licenses, they are at minimal
fault for not knowing how to behave.(Oh, wait. I nearly forgot. The compliance
auditors are “letter of the law” people. Consumers are expected to have a fully
legal understanding of all compliance issues.) When these same “end users” are
intentionally confounded by shifting terms & conditions; shifting audit
procedures; and clueless leaders, what is the logical result? Lots & lots
of non compliant companies to audit?
Lots & lots of easy audit issues for levying fines & penalties?
As to an executive not needing to know how electricity works
to be able to plug in a light; let’s see how well they learn when they short
out the circuit by incorrectly inserting the plug. Don’t suppose someone had to
teach them, somewhere, what the hazards of electric current could be… Go back
to my knife in the socket analogy.
“If the IT Director has trained staff who are educated to
remain compliant in the software deployed on his estate and also trained in the
basics which enable the User to follow a path that ensures correct software
usage ie not overspending, surely that is panacea? “
This is the key point I have been trying to make: A clear
majority of IT Directors does NOT have a staff genuinely trained in compliance.
Well over ¾ of existing SAMs have been trained & certified in literal “overnight”
certification mills. An additional 70% – have been trained by
the enforcement groups or software industry players themselves. Does anyone
genuinely believe that these special interest groups are actually delivering
the full SAM perspective in less than 12 hours of actual training?
Example: The Institute SCCA & SAM programs deliver over
29 individual online, on-demand, sessions that teach credential candidates the
basics of over 42 different types of software licenses. We cover more than 30
specific key license clauses that SAMs must know & understand. We walk
candidates through two actual audit scenarios to help them understand what they’ll
need to know/do. We discuss how to negotiate many clauses that are onerous OUT
of licenses as well as how to insert many clauses that are necessary but missing
INTO the license. A majority of SAM certifications – including so-called “standards”
– do not touch these topics…
“Are you stating that the ‘Just In Time’ process is not
right for SAM?”
Anyone who is foolish enough to play a “just in time”
license compliance game does not belong in our industry. Licensing begins when
the enterprise identifies an initial need and continues until all products
& derivative products relating to the original agreement have been
eliminated from all enterprise systems. Compliance issues must also be
carefully tracked & managed for as many as ten years after the last product
or derivative has been removed.
Maybe you are correct. While I prefer to be labeled as “passionate”
about these topics, maybe belligerence is the only method to gain the attention
of people who are being robbed blind by an industry that has created the
problem, continues to find new methods of enhancing the problem, and continues to
conceal their actions behind self-righteous “educational woe is me” public
relations campaigns. Anyone who has suffered through a conversation with an
enforcement agency or software publisher auditor is well aware that this
industry has declared war on its own consumers. My apologies if my “push back”,
“know your rights”, and “openly proactive SAM training” frameworks are not
gentle enough.
