The Federation Against Software Theft (Fast) has focused too much on generating revenue, and as a result lost sight of its purpose to protect intellectual property, according to a former manager at the body.

The ex-employee, who quit Fast for ethical reasons several years ago, told IT Week that after Fast set up its Corporate Services arm in the late 1990s it became dominated by a sales culture.

“It [was all about] how many meetings the telesales people could get with companies and the conversion rates of those meetings, and the area officers [operated within] a fierce commission-based process,” the former insider explained. “The organisation brought in more commercial people than people who get up in the morning to fight copyright infringement.”

But Colin Bannister, director of enterprise IT management strategy at Fast member CA, said Fast’s educational programmes still provide a worthwhile service.

“The difficulty for many users is the complexity and myriad IT systems that their organisations run,” Bannister said. “Knowing what licences are required is a real challenge. Efforts by firms such as Fast to assist users in this regard are to be welcomed.”

IT Week contacted several other Fast members, including F-Secure, WebSense and Oracle, but they declined to comment on whether Fast is still representing their interests in an appropriate way. Fast also did not respond.

Microsoft last week took its own action to fight software piracy, filing 26 separate legal actions against computer resellers in the US that it alleged had broken copyright law.