Money is tight at the moment. Pennies count and it may be tempting to cut corners. An engineering firm recently appeared to take this route by using Microsoft Office and AutoCAD without a valid software licence. This was uncovered following an anonymous complaint to the Business Software Alliance. Ouch! The firm had to pay a fine and as part of the settlement it agreed that it would no longer use either product. No doubt the episode was disruptive and embarrassing for the firm. To avoid a similar fate you may want to check that all relevant software licences are in place.