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12 Companies Caught Stealing Software in 2007
buzzardsbay writes "Already forgotten Major League Baseball's Mitchell Report? Here's another kind of 'cheaters' list that folks will want to avoid. Baseline Magazine has compiled the top 12 companies fined by the Business Software Alliance last year for not playing by the rules of asset management. According to the report, many of the BSA's busts are made possible through a BSA Reward Program, which offers up to $1 million to individuals who report offending companies."
Here's another list you may wish to avoid: (FTA)
(who may have received up to $1M for their information).said sarcastically of course, but the next time someone asks me why I think they should just go with the F/OSS alternative to Windows, I'm going to hand them this list..... It basically offsets the cost of learning new programs UIs.
Say what you want about Linux fanbois, but they do have this one point going for them.
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Amazingly, as a software developer, I don't consider it to be 'selling your soul' to report a business that gives itself an unfair advantage over the competition by using software they refuse to pay for. I consider it levelling the playing field.
There is free software out there if you are on a budget. I didn't realise there was a secret code amongst IT guys to encourage your employer to just steal Microsoft office instead.
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
Top fine is $300,000 and it is corporate, not to individuals... peanuts when you compare what *AA sues private citizens for simply shifting formats.
It is here.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
I completely agree. To me, piracy stops when you leave college, or alternatively, when you are in the position to make a profit by using it. It's great for learning all the available options on the market, and educating yourself with each one, but once you're working at a company who is going to use it to support their business, they need to shell out the cash to support the OTHER guys business. It should be a no brainer. I'd estimate the majority of revenue companies make on software sales come from corporations in the first place. So when companies start stealing from companies, they've undermined the stability of the whole system.
Maybe they should call it "Top 12 Companies Caught Stealing From Adobe, Microsoft and Symantec in 2007. And Occasionally Autodesk and Borland."
I'm sure the (Big) Business Software Alliance is going to do a report on all the independent software publishers they have done work for any day now.
This is Slashdot for crying out loud. Can't people get it right by now? It is "copyright infringement" not "stealing." They are two separate laws in two separate categories of law based upon completely different concepts of government. Stealing deprives a person of something real and violates their natural rights. Copyright infringement possibly deprives someone of "potential" revenue and violates a government granted privilege, designed for a specific purpose... motivating the creation and dissemination to the people of useful works.
I'm not saying it's right to steal software, but what I'm saying is, if one day, BSA agent is knocking at your door, DO NOT LET THEM IN without any court order. They have no right to check for your licenses without any court orders. keep that in mind.There's that word again. The problem is, they can usually get a court order if they have probable cause, including a report from a current or former employee or the results of running their "free" license checking software they give people to "ensure your licenses are in order." In many businesses (especially very large or very small ones) simply tracking the licensing is a difficult task, especially if your employees have any level of autonomy. Employees buy software on their own or install things from home. No, restrictive security policies won't stop this completely because the people a the top do it and can override IT and because people in IT themselves do it.
Realistically, in small businesses where it is too costly to have IT manage everything, you're better off treating your employees well so they are not motivated to cause you pain. In large enterprises, using professional license tracking software and employee agreement that takes responsibility for anything installed and pervasive use of site licenses or open source licensed software is the way to go.
"said sarcastically of course, but the next time someone asks me why I think they should just go with the F/OSS alternative to Windows, I'm going to hand them this list..... It basically offsets the cost of learning new programs UIs"
Using the list of pirates and their fines as justification for F/OSS is bad logic. If companies just buy the software they intend to use, they don't have to worry about huge fines.
Hmmmm you just don't get it, do you?
Lets see: you can drive this Chevrolet if you pay a licensing fee - OR - you can drive this Ford for free (donations welcome).
If you get caught driving the Chevy without the license, it will cost you way more than the license fee.
OR - you can simply choose to not worry about the fees and fines by driving the Ford?
Then again, never mind, you probably are not going to get the point anyway.
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That one is interesting. It moved to Linux years ago. I am guessing that they aquired a new CTO who loves MS and has now cost the company not just the fine, but all the time and money on lawyers and new enforcement. The company should think about going back to Linux.
What makes you think it comes from the top? I doubt a CTO would decide to make a policy of pirating big-name software. He may just as easily be guilty of lax or ineffectual enforcement of a Linux policy.
When a company shifts to open source there may well be employees who bring in their own pirated copies of Windows, Adobe or Office. A company like Burlington has dozens or hundreds of stores and branch offices and it's not hard to imagine a mid-manager or cubicle dweller ignoring the CTO's directions. Think of the intern in the art department who brings in his own cracked copy of Photoshop because that's what he's used to, and thinks "what's the harm, no one will ever know." That's all the BSA needs to bust the company, and hell they don't even care if it's the intern himself who turns them in.
Remember, the BSA show no mercy in their audits and aren't at all forgiving of the actions of individual employees. Collecting fines is secondary to their mission, more important is making public spectacles of punishing offending companies.
1. Become disgruntled IT manager at large company
2. Install pirated software across the enterprise
3. Quit
4. Call BSA
5. Profit!!