Recommendations for Resellers

Being an authorized software dealer has many advantages. It gives you, the dealer, access to the software's creators and owners, opportunities to take advantage of marketing and advertising programs and other incentives, and guarantees your customers the service and support they expect when they buy software.

Whenever pirated software creeps into the channel, it endangers those relationships and threatens to erase those competitive advantages from your business. It also exposes you and your business to serious punishment, ranging from civil penalties to criminal prosecution, fines and even prison.

One of the easiest ways to fall into the piracy trap is succumbing to the temptation to "load up" a computer's hard drive with "extra" software in order to make a sale. While pre-installing legitimate copies for which your customer has paid can be a service, placing illegal copies on the hard drive as an incentive is pure piracy. It may look like good economics in the short run, but in the long run it is a danger to your business.

Counterfeit software is another potential problem for resellers. Unscrupulous businesses and organized crime rings engage in the illegal duplication and sale of copyrighted material with the intent of directly imitating the copyrighted product. Sometimes the product looks very much like the real product; in other cases, the quality is obviously suspect, with poor print quality, homemade labels and the like. Because of the ease of creating CD-ROMs, many resellers may come across "compilation" CD-ROMs, or straight copies of copyrighted software that is normally distributed on CD-ROM.

To protect yourself, make sure you know the source of the software you sell. Buy software from authorized distributors or reputable distributors only. If you are not sure about the status of a certain distributor, contact the software publisher directly. If someone quotes you a price that is below the authorized distributors' pricing, it is probably "too good to be true." Is the software in original, sealed packages? Does it bear the anti-theft medallions and devices used by some publishers, such as hologram stickers? Are there original warranty and registration cards, original media in sealed envelopes, and original license agreements?

Resellers may also entangle themselves in piracy by failing to follow the proper license agreements for a particular copy of software. The license contains the legally-binding terms under which the software owner will permit the use of their intellectual property. Programs licensed for academic use, while often cheaper than commercial versions, are not licensed for use outside educational institutions. Copies labeled for demonstration or promotional purposes likewise cannot be sold. Some licenses restrict the use of a copy of a program to a single computer, while others allow some defined number of users to share the same copy. Make sure you know the license terms of the products you sell and adhere strictly to them.

Being an authorized software dealer has many advantages. It gives you, the dealer, access to the software's creators and owners, opportunities to take advantage of marketing and advertising programs and other incentives, and guarantees your customers the service and support they expect when they buy software.

Whenever pirated software creeps into the channel, it endangers those relationships and threatens to erase those competitive advantages from your business. It also exposes you and your business to serious punishment, ranging from civil penalties to criminal prosecution, fines and even prison.

One of the easiest ways to fall into the piracy trap is succumbing to the temptation to "load up" a computer's hard drive with "extra" software in order to make a sale. While pre-installing legitimate copies for which your customer has paid can be a service, placing illegal copies on the hard drive as an incentive is pure piracy. It may look like good economics in the short run, but in the long run it is a danger to your business.

Counterfeit software is another potential problem for resellers. Unscrupulous businesses and organized crime rings engage in the illegal duplication and sale of copyrighted material with the intent of directly imitating the copyrighted product. Sometimes the product looks very much like the real product; in other cases, the quality is obviously suspect, with poor print quality, homemade labels and the like. Because of the ease of creating CD-ROMs, many resellers may come across "compilation" CD-ROMs, or straight copies of copyrighted software that is normally distributed on CD-ROM.

To protect yourself, make sure you know the source of the software you sell. Buy software from authorized distributors or reputable distributors only. If you are not sure about the status of a certain distributor, contact the software publisher directly. If someone quotes you a price that is below the authorized distributors' pricing, it is probably "too good to be true." Is the software in original, sealed packages? Does it bear the anti-theft medallions and devices used by some publishers, such as hologram stickers? Are there original warranty and registration cards, original media in sealed envelopes, and original license agreements?

Resellers may also entangle themselves in piracy by failing to follow the proper license agreements for a particular copy of software. The license contains the legally-binding terms under which the software owner will permit the use of their intellectual property. Programs licensed for academic use, while often cheaper than commercial versions, are not licensed for use outside educational institutions. Copies labeled for demonstration or promotional purposes likewise cannot be sold. Some licenses restrict the use of a copy of a program to a single computer, while others allow some defined number of users to share the same copy. Make sure you know the license terms of the products you sell and adhere strictly to them.