Entitledto.co.uk is a software firm that produces benefits
calculation software. It hosts a free version of the software on
its website with a note in its terms and conditions indicating that
that version is only for non-commercial use. It has accused Derby
of violating that term.
The company sent a bill to Derby County Council which is
understood to have been for £10,000, claiming that heavy use from
Derby Council internet addresses showed that workers were using the
free version of the software as a professional tool.
The Council, which had no written contract or agreement with
Entitledto, refused to pay the bill, which it says was based on a
misreading of internet traffic to the Entitledto site.
"A significant number of Local Authorities sadly pay no
attention to the specific software we produce for them and opt to
use the public site for free to support their services," said an
Entitledto statement. "It is normal business practice for
organisations to pay for services and almost all free services such
as you can find on the web today are covered by licensing
agreements or copyright that restricts that use to non-commercial
or public use only, this is the case for our public
calculator."
Derby confirmed that it received the bill and did not pay it
because Entitledto's accusation that the web calculator was being
used by its staff in the course of their duties was wrong.
"We did receive an invoice from Entitledto," said John Cornell,
assistant director of ICT and performance management at the
Council. "We checked it out and what they were basing it on was
access via the Derby address."
"We pointed out to them that we have going out from our firewall
all sorts of access requests, we have free internet access out in
libraries and it could well be that any hits on their site are from
the public and not from us," said Cornell.
Entitledto said that authorities should use full versions of
benefits calculation software. "The reason that E2adviser was
developed was so that advisers, who have a greater understanding of
the benefit/tax credit system, can give the best advice possible to
their clients in return giving them the most accurate information
in complicated situations which could never be the case by using
our public calculator on its own," said the company's statement.
"Moreover, the introduction of local housing allowance means that
for private sector tenants a specific calculation for each local
authority must be carried out."
But Cornell said that Derby Council does use full, paid-for
benefits and entitlements software when calculating benefits on
behalf of claimants, and that it does not rely on free web
services.
"We've got our own benefits calculator which we use in customer
services," he said. "The invoice has been cancelled and we have
taken the step of barring access from any council addresses to
their benefits calculator."
Struan Robertson, a technology lawyer at Pinsent Masons, the law
firm behind OUT-LAW.COM, said Entitledto should change its
website.
"Even if council staff had been using this benefits calculator
in the course of their duties, Entitledto's argument for payment is
flimsy at best," he said. "If they want to restrict their service
to non-commercial use only, they need to make that clear on their
site. They don't."
"You can't expect to enforce terms like this unless people know
about them and agree to them. Agreement can sometimes be implied –
but not where the user has to struggle to find any mention of the
condition in the first place," said Robertson.
