SCHOOLS PENALIZED FOR COPYING.

Byline: David R. Baker Daily News Staff Writer

Rather than face a lengthy court fight with some of the computer industry's biggest firms, Los Angeles school officials voted Tuesday to settle a threatened lawsuit over software piracy by district employees.

The school district will pay $300,000 to the Business Software Alliance, which includes Microsoft and Novell.

District officials will also spend $499,616 per year for the next three school years to hire people to check for pirated software at schools and to teach employees not to copy programs illegally.

``They'll go look for it, and they'll do staff development at the same time,'' school board member Barbara Boudreaux said.

Two years ago, the Business Software Alliance found pirated computer programs at the district's West Valley Occupational Center and threatened a lawsuit.

Since federal law allows software companies to recover damages ranging from $20,000 to $100,000 for each illegally copied program, and school officials feared enormous penalties for the district if they lost in court.

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, the district admits no liability. After the 2001-2002 school year, the district will decide whether to keep people hired under the settlement.

Board member David Tokofsky suggested after the meeting that the board might have settled too quickly. The computer companies, he suggested, might actually have been loathe to be seen in a public courtroom pressing the school district for money.

``When else would the district have the chance to be the little guy?''

At its Tuesday meeting, the board also received a motion from member Jeff Horton backing Superintendent Ruben Zacarias' call for a state audit of the purchase and environmental studies of the problem-plagued Belmont Learning Center site.

The recent discovery of unexpected concentrations of explosive methane gas on the site may add millions of dollars to the cost of what already would be the country's most expensive high school.

Horton's motion, which will be discussed at an upcoming meeting, would also have the district's top auditor investigate the site purchase, coordinating with the California state auditor and the Los Angeles County district attorney. And it asks board members to consider giving the state a greater role in land acquisition for school construction, although it leaves vague what that role could be.

Finally, the board approved a motion requesting that the Los Angeles Zoo become a smoke-free facility. The district next will bring the request to Mayor Richard Riordan, the City Council and the zoo's general manager.