The Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) has unveiled a new membership scheme aimed at delivering support to the SMB sector.

Founded in 1984, FAST is a software anti-piracy organisation which campaigns on behalf of the software industry.

There will be five membership categories under FAST’s new scheme, with the lowest aimed at firms with below £250,000 turnover and the highest at £25m plus, with a sliding scale of membership fees. Members will now be entitled to legal advice, IP valuation, discounted corporate banking and networking opportunities.

Alex Hilton, FAST’s chief executive, said the scheme was designed to help smaller software developers which do not have adequate resources.

“We are trying to help be a voice to the developer who is often small and doesn’t have the right resources, or the scale or the depth of pocket. We have a mix of members right now but we are trying to incentivise the sub-£1m-turnover category because the price jumps in membership fees,” he said.

SOURCE: channelweb.co.uk