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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.
You're the IT guy. Find an employee who is disgruntled (or maybe just use the guy that keeps eating your lunch out of the fridge even though it's CLEARLY marked with BIG BLACK MARKER with your name). Send an email ratting the company out to the BSA from that person's account. Put a BSA bumper sticker on his car. Sneak into his house and put a thank you card ("The Business Software Alliance thanks you for reporting 500 scofflaw software stealing terrorists in 2006! Wishing you more success bringing down more scum in 2007!") on his mantle.
Meanwhile, forge emails from your boss to you threatening to fire you if you don't immediately and without question install as much illegal software as possible. Include some BSA baiting ("And if the BSA comes around, I've got a few shotgun shells with their names on it! Yeehaw!") For extra points, forge an entire email thread wherein he continues to threaten you and the BSA and anyone else you can think of despite your continued objections. Throw in some sentences where you attempt to convince him of his wrongs through Bible verses.
When the BSA comes to the office, throw a Molotov cocktail from your boss's window toward their car. Leave the building and wait across the street for the SWAT team to arrive. If your boss tries to come out, as soon as you can see him coming out the door yell as loud as you can "He's got a gun!"
This should take care of your problem.
How ELSE would I get anything done?!
I know you meant it as a joke, but it bears repeating. Whenever possible, I always pirate my software first, even at work (own business). The last thing I'm going to do is shell out hundreds of dollars on software that turns out to be shit.
For those a little skeptical I even had a recent example with Winfax pro. Very glad now that I went with Snappyfax instead, instead of shelling out money for Symantec's piece of crap.
And yes, I know that a lot of software is try before you buy, but that's a very recent development, and generally doesn't cover anything more than $50~$100 anyway.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
how are they going to behave should this come to the attention of FAST (or other enforcement body)?
Why bother to find out?
Tell them that you are going to Install Open Office or quit. It's not that what they have asked is morally wrong, it's that it exposes YOU to danger for their benefit. Oh yeah, it's also stupid because better software exists and they have "standardized" on the worst. You offered your advice and they discarded it, so it's time to go unless you want to be an bag man.
By the way, the anonymous reader has already reported them. ISPs already co-operate with media companies and monitors traffic. The chances are they have monitored the post. But it won't matter because someone there will fink sooner or later.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
1. Threaten to quit if they don't comply.
2. Quit.
3. Mention that penalties for pirating software are more expensive than buying it in the first place.
4. Install Open Office instead, see if people notice.
5. Threaten to inform Microsoft/BSA.
6. Draft your letter to the company owners, but instead talk about how 'Open Office saves money' without mentioning your PHB's stupid plan to pirate Windows.
7. Go over your bosses's head and tell the owners what he's up to.
I'm sure other people will give you options as well. You obviously have principles, don't let your work overrule them.
You are reading a copy of my copyrighted post.
It's a hard path, and I know someone who has walked it. I have a cousin who was in the same situation and was fired for refusing to perform those illegal acts.
If you are in your grace period, they can terminate you without giving a reason, but if you've been employed for some time they cannot legally fire you for refusing to perform an illegal act.
In the end, my cousin didn't get anything out of it. He had to find another job (and did) but he did have the satisfaction of seeing the company get busted for unrelated illegal actions, which were then compounded when the illegal software was discovered.
To this day, even though it was tough being forced to find a new job, he is glad that he took a stand against it... and I'll be the first to admit that I admire him for it.
This is not a sig.
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
Are you aware that 7-Zip has a file manager mode that does the same kind of crap as winzip and winrar?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
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.
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)
Push it up the chain to the owners, then if there's no love:
The BSA gives out rewards for reporting piracy. Tell them the situation, but not the company, and find out if the reward will be worth possibly losing your job for reporting them. Then if you do lose your job that's good lawsuit fodder. Reporting is confidential, so the BSA won't tell it's you, but they'll probably know anyway due to your past protests.
I really don't like the BSA, which likes to drastically punish people for shoddy license accounting. But this is a case of a company willfully and against clear advice installing, using and profiting off of unlicensed software on a large scale. It's just wrong.
The first time I refused to back down and wound up prompting the company owner to call the company lawyer, who literally passed a brick when the owner tried to explain that he didn't "feel" software piracy was wrong. His language is very specific here, because while you might not feel like you're doing something wrong, that doesn't change the fact that it's illegal. Eventually they knuckled down and paid full price for the package they were going to pirate. The second time I was sacked on a friday afternoon after lunch ("Studies have statistically shown that there's less chance of an incident if you do it at the end of the week"). I called the BSA on the way out, and a few weeks later the company was audited to the bargained-down tune of $6,000, of which I received $500 for "doing the right thing". Ultimately, it's a question of how questionable you'll allow your ethics to become; things like this may not travel from job to job or position to position but it's much easier to keep the high ground than to regain it once you've lost it.
The force in this case is that you're the IT guy. Can anyone think of the best thing about being the IT guy?
Anyone? anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
You can talk over people's heads and just make stuff up! Seriously. I ask myself this as the IT guy all the time: "Hmmm... do I really want to explain this or do I just want to make something up to get rid of this person?".
Many times, it's make something up. Besides pointing out the obvious illegality, you can just mention that everytime Office is opened the serial number is reported back to Redmond. If two people have it open at the same time then "BAM!" Microsoft sees a possible piracy issue.
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.
IANAL, but I am an employee representative with legal training. However, for Germany, not the US.
First, insist that they give you the order to install that software in writing. Tell them that you believe it is breaking the law, but as a good employee you will of course do it if ordered to do so in writing with either a) a statement from the legal department that it's legal or b) a statement from the boss that he's taking responsibility.
Stand your ground on this one. Make sure you have a witness (a co-worker) if things get tough.
Second, put your objections in writing as well. Sign them and mail them to a third party - a union representative, a lawyer, anyone who'll count for something in a court of law.
That should cover your ass. If you're ok withh probably breaking the law, you're good from here. If you're not ok, do the one thing you can (and, by the way, are legally obliged to) do: Inform the authorities. Really. Stop dancing around the fire. No matter what you do, one thing is sure to not make you happy in the long run, and that's the half-assed way.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I've been in a similar position where I was asked me to testify against my employer. My employer made it clear that if I did "my Career" path would be very limited. So I testified my company was found at fault and within 3 months I was asked to resign, at which point I refused. A few months later I was RIF'd from my position with no separation package. In the exit interview I simply stated "wonder how the lawyers" will feel about this. True to form I had an offer to leave and not come back but I would receive a paycheck for the next 18 months along with all my benefits. If you do the right thing you wont have any regrets. In your position I'm guessing you probably have a manager that is trying to look good by saving money. when the chips fall he's not going to stand in the way of some one else taking the blame. Remember you work for .gov and your expected to fall on your sword
no matter how good it is, it is human nature always wants to make things better
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.
1) Early in my career, a VP walked into my office and asked me to steal a copy of a competitor's source code. I refused. I later found out he'd already asked someone else more senior, who had also refused. He eventually came to his senses, and never asked us to do anything unethical or illegal again. Everyone lived happily ever after.
2) A few years later at another company, two C?Os kept a vendor busy while another VP "borrowed" a copy of their code "until we can afford to pay it back". The rest of us found out about this when the company got sued. Not long after, the company went into bankruptcy and everyone was laid off. Just before thanksgiving. Happy holidays to all the rest of us. I don't think it came to criminal proceedings against the officers of the company, but it very well could have. Civil suits were also filed against the CEO/CFO team, and they declared personal bankruptcy as well.
So which boat would you rather be in?
I know, you could end up getting chunked out of the boat all together. At that point, I'd drop the hammer on them. If you think think that's a likely scenario, speak with a lawyer NOW so if they threaten you, you know what to say. That might solve teh problem.
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.
That ought to make it hard to 'lose'.
If you're that worried about your job, HR too.
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".
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.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
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.
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.
Ethics is further down the list of things to be true to than survival. Especially since we're talking about something as abstract as violating a copyright.
No, we're talking about not being someone else's bagman and the risks that involves. The problem here is that the boss is transferring the risk his company is taking to the employee. If something goes wrong he's screwed and won't have the option of another job he has now. If the company is caught and he's blamed, he'll end up washing dishes for a living.
I've worked with convicted felons and they all deeply regret their convictions. Their crimes were petty but it has locked them out of all sorts of honest work. The few people who hire them do so because they know they can squeeze that much harder. This makes life harder for them than you and me.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Document, document document - as in keep track of all communications and don't do any of it verbally. If you have verbal communications, email the parties involved with a conversation summary saying, "This is the summary of ourcoversation as I recall it. Please append comments or corrections if you believe them necessary".
One approach is to ask them to sign an affidavit stating you are doing this because told to, and that all parties recognize the illegality of it. If they fire you as a result of your "attitude", you probably have a case for taking them to court for illegal termination.
What ever you end up doing though, I'd get out of there ASAP.
Just keep it simple and professional. Get a list of all the Serial Numbers you have (legal access to). Email that list to your boss, along with a letter saying: "We have office installed on the following computers: Dave Jones, Workstation 101, Serial # 1234 1234 1234 1234 Steve Jones, Workstation 102, Serial # 1244 1244 1244 1244 Etc Etc Etc I am ready to install office on workstation 201, 202, etc etc, but we have no more serial numbers that I am aware of to activate any other copies. If you have more serial numbers available, please provide me with a list of them and I can proceed with installation, thanks in advance! Tom Jones" This tells bossman that you know what is going on, that you have an inventory of what is where and what should not be where. And if by some miracle he comes up with a list of new serial numbers, that is on his head, not yours. You're just implementing instructions and information that was provided to you by your boss. If he tells you to find serial numbers on your own, tell him you have no idea how or where to look for that kind of information. Keeps it simple, shows him you're willing and ready to install, you just need that one thing from him to proceed.
For anyone working for the Federal Government and find themselves in a similar situation, report it to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, Disclosure Unit. This office "...serves as a safe conduit for the receipt and evaluation of whistleblower disclosures from federal employees, former employees and applicants for federal employment."
Ignore all the advice to quit. That may be a viable option for run-of-the-mill civilian jobs, but in federal service there is only one employer. Move to another position, yes, but don't give up a federal career over something so insignificant as this. And no, you are not expected to fall on your sword. You are expected to disclose fraud, waste, and abuse.
Gary Dunn
Open Slate Project
Bad advice. Snitching is a bad thing. You don't have to. The proper, legal, way is the right thing to do. Refuse the request. Don't go above someones head (that is usually a bad idea). If you have an HR department, talk to the HR person. The HR person is in legal hot water if he complains and later get fired for sticking to the law.
As I said - there is a proper process for this, and it is trivial. He sticks to the law. Refueses all such requests. If they fire him, he sues them. They're not going to fire him. If the organization is of some size, his manager should be in trouble once the HR person gets involved.
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.
"That which does not kill us makes us stranger." -Trevor Goodchild