£50,000: The cost of unlicensed software for four businesses

Four manufacturing companies have reached legal settlements worth thousands of pounds over the use of unlicensed software.

Software industry body the Business Software Alliance (BSA) took action against the four companies who were unable to produce licences for all the software installed on their PCs.

The companies, which included a manufacturer of car parts and a company that makes office furniture, have paid out more than £50,000 in settlements and the cost of new licences.

The largest settlement came in at £20,000 with the most spent on new licences reaching £10,000.

All four businesses were found to be using unlicensed Microsoft software, while individual businesses also had instances of unlicensed versions of Adobe and Autodesk software.

Last month the BSA also settled legal action with three London companies, with settlements and the cost of buying the correct software licences totalling more than £100,000.