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Would You Install Pirated Software at Work?
An anonymous reader asks: "I am an IT professional, and due to budget constraints, I have been told to install multiple copies of MS Office, despite offering to install OpenOffice, and other OpenSource Office products. Even though most of the uses are for people using Excel like a database, or formatting of text in cells, other programs are not tolerated. I have been over ruled by our controller, to my disagreement. I would never turn them in, but I am in tough place by knowing doing something illegal. I want to keep my job, but disagree with some of the decision making on this issue. Other than drafting a letter to the owners of the company on how I disagree with the policy, what else can I do?"
You must ask yourself: if they're willing to overrule you and insist you commit an illegal act, how are they going to behave should this come to the attention of FAST (or other enforcement body)? My guess is they will dump it all on your shoulders. If they don't play by the rules now, they certainly will not start when their backs are against the wall.
I suggest you document everything, off site and get your CV circulated immediately.
Any sufficiently advanced bug is indistinguishable from a feature.
Dear Slashdot, I have a set of principles that I adhere to rigorously. Today, I have been presented with something that violates my principles. What should I do?
Answer, you have a choice: Grow some balls or a spine. Really, either will do.
The minute you install the pirated software, you have no moral leg to stand on. You either stick to your guns or you leave. The "I did it because it was my job to do it" defense has been tried (literally) and failed.
To me, the decision is clear-cut.
Any actual profession... and as much as IT/programming may claim to be one, it isn't really one yet... has a code of conduct that says quite clearly what you need to do. You can't be a professional and knowingly support illegal activity.
If you don't get it in writing, should anything happen and the company be audited ... YOU will be the one blamed and fired.
Everyone else will swear that YOU were the loose cannon. That they would NEVER violate a copyright. That they are 100% honest.
Really. They're already asking you to violate your ethics / principles. Why would you believe that they wouldn't lie about who's idea it was?
Personally, there is *NO WAY IN HELL* I would do it. Nor would I work for a company that was irresponsible enough to even ASK me to. Sounds like you've picked a pretty shady and unstable company to work for. If I were you, I would stall on the installation ("We're having some technical issues with some of the machines, sir") and start looking for a new job. DO NOT install it if you plan on doing this (they would still blame you after-the-fact).
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I've been in a similar situation, only for us it was the case where someone wanted to run a course in our IT Suite. They needed specific software for the course and told me this 2 days before the course was due to run, they told me they'd ordered the licenses and were on the way but might not make it until after the course was due to run.
Knowing what these people are like, and having little confidence in their ordering of the licenses I put my foot down and refused to install it until the licenses arrived, I made the point that if this caused a problem for their course that they should perhaps consider not leaving things until the last minute in future. My line manager backed me up in my stance however my boss over-ruled both of us and told us to install it, standing my ground I defied him and refused to do so. Eventually my boss installed the software himself, so the course ran and so forth but at least I hadn't been the one to break the law, the best part? Those licenses never arrived, the whole thing was completely illegal, frankly I fail to believe the licenses were ever really ordered.
You shouldn't worry about losing your job by refusing to do this, they'll most likely back down on any threat to sack you. If they do however follow through then you're looking at an extremely strong court case involving a massive payout for yourself. If you get sacked and know they have gone ahead installing illegal copies, your first stop should be to report them to whatever country deals with anti-piracy raids, when you report it ask that any evidence of infringement they find be made available to your court case, this will make your case pretty much un-loseable. Just bear in mind that you absolutely do not have to do this, you're entirely in the right by refusing to do so and the law will recognise that.
One other thing to note is that if you do follow through, obey your orders and install the software - what happens if someone else reports your company? Can you really be sure they'll take the blame? What are you going to do if they say they had no knowledge of pirate software on your systems and hence the blame gets shifted entirely on you.
I think most people pirate at least some software and home, and so some may say it's hypocritical to say the things I've said here knowing that, but there's a distinction to be made between what you do at home and being professional at work. No one has to know what you get upto at home, and so the risk is more controlled, however at work any number of your users could cash in on that $1000 software piracy report reward or whatever. Furthermore, I'd imagine the penalties for what would probably be commercial copyright infringement would be much more harsh than for home copying also.
The answer is simple, just don't do it. Just do your other jobs instead of following your boss' order to break the law. If he fires you, sue. You'll win multiple years of lost salary easily when the reason you were fired is that you were ordered to commit illegal acts and wouldn't. In the end, it'll look good on the resume for your next job, because future employers will know that you'll stand your ground for the things that are right.
Honestly, I'm speaking from a little bit of experience here, so keep a stiff upper lip and don't give in to your boss.
how are they going to behave should this come to the attention of FAST (or other enforcement body)?
Why bother to find out?
Tell them that you are going to Install Open Office or quit. It's not that what they have asked is morally wrong, it's that it exposes YOU to danger for their benefit. Oh yeah, it's also stupid because better software exists and they have "standardized" on the worst. You offered your advice and they discarded it, so it's time to go unless you want to be an bag man.
By the way, the anonymous reader has already reported them. ISPs already co-operate with media companies and monitors traffic. The chances are they have monitored the post. But it won't matter because someone there will fink sooner or later.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
They asked you to violate the law and your own ethics, you gave them perfectly reasonable alternatives that would cost them nothing, and they still overruled you.
Tell me again why you are so attached to this job?
They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
I guess I must be the only one who ever worked for an unscrupulous employer who reads Slashdot, but the bulk of the replies here amaze me! There are certain things I'd quit my job over, some that would just keep me up at night, and some I'd do out of hand knowing that it was my only choice. Sure, if they insisted I sacrifice a virgin on some pagan alter, I'd bail immediately. Or if they wanted me to set them up a kiddie-porn site for their personal collections. Or if they voted Democrat (just kidding...) But software piracy isn't one of those 'quit immediately' type of things for me. Sure it's a 'polish your resume' event, but that's about it.
I'm posting this AC because it doesn't reflect on my current employer and I have no desire to 'out' the previous one except where it suits me.
You might point out to them that all it takes is one disgruntled employee or ex-employee to make a complaint to the BSA (Business Software Alliance).
There is a bright spot, however. After they pay a few hundred thousand dollars to the BSA, they may be more willing to switch completely to open source software.
If they wanted you to kill somene as "part of the job"... would you?
Depends on the job, doesn't it?
It still ultimately comes down to your moral and legal responsibility. But for most people, it doesn't take that much rationalizing to find a set of circumstances to justify any "obviously immoral" action.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
I'd be a little less weaselly than that. I'd stop at "I'm ready to begin installing Office on our PC's. From what I can tell, we only have XX licenses, so we can only install it on XX machines.", and let him specifically say that there are enough licences or to order me to do it anyway.
That would effectively protect you against legal action based on your deeds; however, misprison of a felony is also a crime, so that unless you inform the authorities of your boss' crime, you are still liable to legal action based on your boss' deeds.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
Has the submitter absolutely determined that they don't have the licenses, and for whatever reason they've chosen to send a guy around with a CD? Seems silly to pick a fight, however well meaning and potentially appropriate, over what might be a misunderstanding. Now if it's not a misunderstanding, obviously don't be a party to the crime, and report it. Then you can add a line on your resume about how you initiated a project which saved your company x dollars in liability, and stopped a manager from destroying and embarassing it.
And if it's not against your principles, you're choosing between hoping it will blow over, and covering your ass. In most cases, I prefer the CYA approach -- cover yours, not your bosses'.
(IANAL)
With all due respect, you're an idiot. Legally, you need 1 copy of Office (or whatever, with VERY rare exceptions) per (at least) Concurrent User even if you are using Thin Clients. In the Case of Office, since everyone has Outlook open 24/7 you're screwed anyway. Citrix may ALLOW you to run 1 license of Office/whatever for everyone there, but that doesn't make it legal.
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The question that your statement begs is if the law is being violated by the majority, is it a just law?
This is the logic your mom used in that "If everyone else jumped off of a bridge, would you do it too?"
Just because everyone is doing it doesn't make it right. Then again, just because it is law, that doesn't necessarily make it right either. The only thing that can be taken from your statement is that if the majority is breaking the law then the validity, justness or application of the law to modern times needs to be revisited.
Copyright laws are meant to protect the rights of the intellectual property rights holder. Not necessarily the creator of that intellectual property, hence the RIAA.
If a software company is charging what the market believes is too much for software then the market adjusts itself by offering a better solution at a better price. Hence OpenOffice.
The black market in illegally traded software cannot be held up as a moral barometer to the current market and trends. The black market exists to undermine the establishment and is not in the best interests of open commerce. It will always exist no matter how just the laws that govern the market are. In addition, many proponents of teh black market support the poor behavior in the name of open software sources and standards. Which, in itself, is a fallacy.
That said, pirating software is flat out illegal. License agreements are put in place to protect rights that everyone has the right to protect. What makes pirating software wrong is that you are violating that license agreement that is meant to protect the intellectual property owner's rights. If you violate the agreement, you violate the rights of the owner because you take away thier control of thier intelletual property. When you violate rights outlined by something like, say, the U.S. Constitution, you are depriving someone else of thier rights and freedoms. That is a civil crime and punishable by the justice system established in this country.
If you feel that the law is unjust because "everyone is doing it" then, violating the law is not going to change it. Petitioning your elected officials in Congress will...provided you can get enough of that supposed "majority" to sign a paper saying that the law needs to be revisited and then voted on. Then again, there is a such thing as organized defiance of a law but it doesn't really apply to software piracy. Mainly because you are using that pirated software to your benefit. There can most likely be a monetary value associated with that benefit. If you are profiting off of that benefit and hoooo boy are you in for a doozie of a lawsuit! See, if you are benefitting from someone else's work/property, it's really difficult to claim some sort of organized definance of an "unjust" law.
I love the fact that pretty much all the responses to this topic say "quit!"
It is amazing how easy it is to tell someone else to quit their job. The majority of people telling this guy to quit have probably installed lots of pirated software in the past, and they probably have music that they didn't buy. Why should you be so offended when your manager asks you to do something that you've already done in your personal life many times?
It is kind of like if you are a mass murderer and go to prison, and your cell mate asks you to kill someone in a cell down the hall. Shouldn't be that offended that he asked, should you?
Anyway, what this company is asking him to do is wrong. No doubt. But I love the fact that everyone here is so incredibly offended and now has all these morales that they didn't have last week when they were posting bits about how they trade music files without guilt because even though the law says it is illegal, they don't recognize the law as being valid.
Well, this is SLASHDOT, after all.
You've been asked to break the law. And if it's ever found out (and keep in mind the VAST majority of BSA audits are on the behest of disgruntled employees) you'll be the one on the hook. You don't want that.
Resign, and make no bones about why.
And the reason for that answer is best summed up by one of my all-time favourite quotations (from, I think, Alan Simpson): "If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters".
You should never allow yourself to be ordered into doing something illegal. However, your boss *can* put you in a no-win situation unless you take some precautionary steps.
The fact of the matter is that you need to *first* make sure that you handle the situation calmly. If your boss backs down, it doesn't mean he isn't going to hold a grudge against you if you caused his pet project to fail.
Proving why you have been fired can be a tough thing to do if time is allowed to pass. You need to evaluate if you can work with this individual in the future. If he is the type to hold grudges, start looking for another job, even if he seems to calm down. A boss who is willing to order you to break laws will see nothing wrong with trumping up means to decrease your performance ratings even if he doesn't fire you or target you for the next layoff. Moral high-ground isn't very comforting if you are sacked and not prepared for it.
If any boss gave me an illegal order, I'd instantly consider getting a new job. Even if you aren't fired, you may find yourself laid off after someone sues your company for similar actions.
Don't expect the legal system to protect you without preparation. If a boss calls you into his office and gives you an illegal order that you refuse, it will be very difficult to prove he ever gave the order if that boss denies it. Your word against his and all that. At that point, you are a potentially marked man, without recourse until you take some action to strengthen your position.
If the boss does manage to give you the order without any other witnesses, your first step is to go to his boss, with a co-worker and report that order was given. He needs to know about his underling, and you want the co-worker there to make sure that it is clear that you immediately went to him about it. It also prevents that person from covering your boss and his own backend, should he also be the unscrupulous type.
Be professional about it, though. I have had some bosses who were generally not bad people, but wanted to get the job done. If you can phrase your refusal in a way that is not indignant, but still a firm, "no", then you will be better off. He may realize he's been a jerk, but rubbing it in his face is a bad idea, unless you plan on leaving your job soon anyway.
CC it, not blindly, to yourself, your boss, your boss's boss, all the way up the chain... and MS, too, just for the hell of it.
Yeah, as if THAT isn't a career limiting move. Everyone LOVES a snitch.
First you email them. Maybe you'll even get a noteworthy response you can then keep for a while.
Seriously, don't snitch as a first resort, use it as a last resort - hell even make an HR issue out of it.
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Impractical advice, sorry to say. Sounds like fun, but inivites heavy duty retaliation, and undermines the possiblity of support from above. The upper level CC's will be seen by both your boss and the folks above him/her as a transparent play. The CC will make it look like your mission is to make your boss look bad, which may be true, but it is not the perception you wish to leave. A BCC to self is fine. If you get pushback from the boss, CC'ing his boss on your reply is fine, even with the e-mail chain - but round one CC chain you suggest is going to convert an outcome from which it is possible to emerge with a victory to a sure loss.
I want to add to this that I find the moral implications to be of a different order altogether. It's one thing to violate copyright privately, quite another to do so in order to make a profit.
Moreover, companies are granted special protections and rights by the government. To balance this, they are expected to compete in the market. They must follow consistent rules in order for that competition to be (remotely) fair. Even if the law is broken and wrong (as I believe copyright is), that is not a sufficient justification for a business to take it upon itself to play fast and loose with the law. (Other justifications - such as important political or cultural speech, lifesaving treatment, artistic merit, or the ridiculously untenable position Digg just found itself in - may have merit. Profit does not.)
I know many small developers and web designers pirate their tools. I don't feel comfortable judging them; neither do I think it's my job to police big companies who can afford to pay but cheat anyway. But for myself, as a professional software developer (and no fan of Microsoft) I have spent thousands of dollars on Microsoft tools. I knew that I would not be comfortable with my actions, or feel my criticism of copyright to be wholly legitimate, if I did otherwise.
Now I develop free software, because that's what I believe in. The high cost of proprietary software only reinforces the advantages of the open model. When companies play by the rules, free and open source software wins.
1. Assume the majority will do something wrong/stupid
2. Assume that you will do what's right/smart
3. Force the conclusion that you would act differently than the majority
Except of course, that you put the conclusion in the assumption. What if they're exactly like you, then they would never do anything wrong/stupid either and you'd always be in agreement, and always do the right/smart thing. I certainly don't see people jumping off bridges, maybe there's a reason for that? I never thought that mom's logic worked on anyone past elementary school.Is a bunch of people smoking pot (I don't mean in a protest march) organizaed defiance? Hell no, most people smoke it for their own pleasure and couldn't care less about making any sort of "stand". But mass individual disobedience of the law is a real protest, it is sending a mesage that "this law isn't worth respecting" even if they're not taking to the streets.
Finally, I think there's one thing that's not taken properly into account. What does it take to enforce the law? What's the price of freedom that we pay? I don't think anyone will argue that they're for terrorists. But I think most will argue against some 1984ish state where the state sees everything, car tracking, credit card tracking, random search and seizures at home and in public, random opening of letters, general wiretapping even though I'm sure it could somehow be used to catch terrorists. I'm sure digicams are a boon to child porn producers. But if you ask people if they'd rather all their pictures were encrypted on camera and had to be presented to a government board for legality first before release, they wouldn't even though it'd probably help fight it.
Yes, I do see a value in copyright as the founding fathers did. But I also see that to protect copyright in todays digital society where massive and exact reproduction can happen in every home, you need to cripple everything. You need to cripple computers, you need to cripple the Internet, you need to cripple media through taxes, you need to cripple innovation in communication, you need to restrain free speech regarding DRM implementations and so on. That hampers the progress of science and the useful arts rather than promote it, and you don't get a fair picture without taking it into account.
Let's say there a million songs made because of copyright, that a million each listened to at 10$/album. If we abolished it, and there was a hundred thousand songs (idealists, promos, sponsored, subsidized, whatever) but a hundred million listened to it for free, which is really the greater benefit? People have been painters, singers, dancers and storytellers far longer than there has been photocopiers, phonographs, films and books. We haven't seen much because they were performing arts or unique works, but if we could have preserved it, replicated it and shared it we'd have in abundance. There's this great illusion that the world would become a cultural wasteland without the big industry, which just isn't true. So again - how much are they helping, how much are they hurting and is it *worth* it? I don't think the answer is that clear cut.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Remember as the IT Guy that you possess specialized knowledge not unlike a doctor or a lawyer: professions where making stuff up is a time honored tradition.
What are you, like, 16 and you just got off your shift at Fry's? You might get away with this a couple times, but as soon as you get caught--and you will, installing MS Office is not a skill on a par with being a doctor or a lawyer, or even high-end janitorial work--you'll look really, really bad, and you'll be the first person they layoff when your bosses need to trim expenses. Comic Book Store Guy and Nick the Computer Guy are funny on TV, but they're funny precisely because no one wants to work with someone like that.
CCing everyone and their boss is not really a good idea, because it contains an implicit threat. If you act like you're ready to hold something over someone's head, even "just in case", people are going to react as though they've already been threatened.
Lose the opensource label and just say an alternative was offered. Knowledgeable people who favor open source might understand the relevance, but it will only confuse everyone else, perhaps even weaken and undermine your case. This is a legal issue, not an appropriate forum for expounding the benefits of an alternative software model that few understand or appreciate.
So... Might makes right? If I am able to forcibly take your work without paying you, it's okay? If I steal and sell off your medical equipment, you shouldn't try to stop me. Better to spend your time coming up with reasons for me to pay for it that don't depend on laws? I don't buy it.
You're not doing this to keep your career within the company, you're doing it to buy some time while you search for a job with an ethical firm. Of course an unethical boss will try to get you fired for blowing the whistle. The email is just to cover your ass and possibly have grounds for a wrongful termination suit. Career potential in a company like this is zero unless you can actively aid and abet wrongdoing.
I've been in a similar situation. I didnt make the email that formal, but basically wrote "Per out conversation, I will make X copies of WorldScope, based on your understanding that so many floating licenses are available." My boss wrote back "do not install." Then came by my desk and verbally said to install. THEN what do you do?
I call bullshit!! Care to cite a source?
If what you're saying is true then a career as a Hitman or mercenary would be a perfectly legitimate career. One could order and carry out assassinations with impunity.
An contract to commit an illegal act is not valid a contract. That is why contracts to kill cannot be enforced and legitimate hit agencies do not exist. The argument that you were simply holding up your end of the deal (even if it is through a limit liability corporation) is not a defense in court. Similarly, if you are ordered to do something illegal you cannot argue that you were obliged to do it unless the company threatened you or your family with physical harm.
you're doing it to buy some time while you search for a job with an ethical firm.
They exist?
Table-ized A.I.