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."

Comments

here's another list

[yagu]

Here's another list you may wish to avoid: (FTA)

individuals who report offending companies

(who may have received up to $1M for their information).

Re:here's another list

[Naughty Bob]

Especially as those individuals are often disgruntled ex-BOFHs, who were responsible for keeping the licensing up to date in the first place. Or so I've heard.

slightly misleading title

[techpawn]

12 Companies Caught Stealing Software in 2007? It's the TOP 12 fined... I'm pretty sure more than 12 companies stole...

Wheres the RIAA?

[bobbocanfly]

The RIAA are famous for stealing/misusing software. Both Forestblog and Ubuntu, well Ubuntu wasnt stealing but it was worse than they sue many people for.

Reward Money not that Great

[ironwill96]

The "up to $1 million" that they always talk about is such a misleading advertisement. The BSA bases the amount of reward money based on the amount of fine that they level against the offending company. Don't think for one second that the BSA is going to give you $1 million for reporting a mom and pop corporation that has 10 copies of Windows XP stolen and faces a fine of $10,000 or so. The $1 million reward is only for cases where the fine levelled (and collected) is in excess of $15 million dollars! The BSA also reserves the right to not pay you anything if they don't feel like it.

Just some thoughts for any greedy ex-IT people on Slashdot..selling your soul may not be worth as much as it first appears!

Re:Reward Money not that Great

[cliffski]

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.

Re:Reward Money not that Great

[ironwill96]

I did not mean to imply that I condone software piracy, I really don't. I too am a software developer but have also worn the IT guy hat on many occasions. The issue is that some of these people reporting the "violating" companies were in fact the ones who helped or suggested pirating the software in the first place. It is that which I find detestable. Yes, the BSA claims that a stipulation for compensation is that you were not involved in the piracy in the first place, but that is often extremely hard to prove and often would just become a case of "he said, she said".

Re:Reward Money not that Great

[jacquesm]

Amazingly, as a software developer I don't see any reason to further help billyboys empire along any further than they already are.

Also I have a bad feeling about ratting out people, if gates-et-al want to make more money licensing they'll either have to lower their prices or increase the quality of their anti piracy measures. These right now have the amazing side effect of locking out legitimate customers which costs those legitimate customers probably a multiple of what the BSA rakes in annually.

I can see your point, if you live from developing software it makes sense in principle but I feel that software licenses have had their longest time in the sun, and the sooner licensed software for basic functionality dies off the better.

There will always be a market for quality software sold under license by professionals willing to maintain that software past the point of sale but the windows-word-excel-powerpoint lemon has been squeezed enough I think. It's just customer lock-in and more or less forced upgrades that are driving that now, nothing to do with real software development.

Re:Reward Money not that Great

[plopez]

Spite and revenge is reward enough for most of us. ;)

Re:Reward Money not that Great

[ludomancer]

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.

Re:Reward Money not that Great

[Todd Knarr]

Possibly, but remember that by the BSA's rules it's irrelevant whether you've paid for the software or not. If you got Microsoft Windows XP included on a computer from Dell, have the COA for the installed copy of XP, have an invoice for the computer but don't have a line item on the invoice for Windows XP, you're a pirate and may get included on this list. Ditto for Adobe. Notice how the same software companies show up on the list of "pirated" software, and the majority of them are companies whose software is included bundled with computers from major makers. How many of those settlements are for real piracy, and how many are just for missing records for bundled software that the BSA knows full well was paid for when the computer was bought but it'll cost the company more to prove it than the BSA is asking in settlement?

Re:Reward Money not that Great

[Trogre]

To ride the /. meme wave:

Who's stealing anything? Is MS being deprived of the ability to run Microsoft Office when Joes Super-Cheap Widgets uses their software without paying for it? I think the term you're looking for is 'infringement'.

I know, I know, I'll go sit down.

Re:Reward Money not that Great

[rtb61]

Twelve companies who desperately wish they had heard about and deployed FOSS and who a very likely to go out of their way to do that in the future. The best way to 'steal' from the members of the Bull Shit Alliance is to not buy or use any of their software.

Re:Reward Money not that Great

[cliffski]

I don't care how your lawyer wants to phrase it, but if someone sells X for Y dollars and you just take it and keep your money and ignore the law, then you are a thief, you can dress it up all you like.
People arguing about whether its 'theft' or infringement' are just trying to deflect criticism away from something most of us learn from our parents, namely that you shouldn't take the results of other peoples work without paying them (unless its offered for free).
Who gives a fuck what lawyers call it? Microsoft office is NOT free. Everyone on Earth knows that. If you can't afford it, use a freeware alternative, they aren't hard to find.

Re:Reward Money not that Great

[Anonymous Coward]

"I don't care how your lawyer wants to phrase it, but if someone sells X for Y dollars and you just take it and keep your money and ignore the law, then you are a thief, you can dress it up all you like."

Lucky me then, I'm not a thief: rest assure Microsoft didn't tried to sell *the* copy of Windows XP I got at any price (they sell their own copies; I got mine through a different channel -I think that's pure capitalism in action, you know, free market... Microsoft sells their copies of Windows XP, Good Joe's sells their own and I buy the one that best fits my interests).

Re:Reward Money not that Great

[Kyrka]

Actually, noting that Burlington Coat Factory is on the list of 12.... I think the BSA debacle is why they are hard core Linux now, right?

Re:Reward Money not that Great

[Trogre]

Do you apply that principle to music and online content too? I'm guessing you've never watching anything copyrighted on Youtube.

Re:Reward Money not that Great

[Verity_Crux]

So where do I turn in my Chinese exchange student? The kid showed up with $3k of illegal software on his laptop and claimed it came with all that software installed. I'd like to "level the playing field" with China.

Re:Reward Money not that Great

[cliffski]

Wow. amazingly yes, I don't steal music. Such people do exist. Luckily, because without us, how the hell do you think the content producers pay their rent?
And believe it or not, if I want to watch a TV show, I watch the show, rather than watch it in a tiny window on youtube.

Re:Reward Money not that Great

[darthflo]

If you got Microsoft Windows XP included on a computer from Dell, have the COA for the installed copy of XP, have an invoice for the computer but don't have a line item on the invoice for Windows XP, you're a pirate and may get included on this list.

That won't uphold in court. If you only lack licenses for preinstalled stuff you didn't "enhance" by entering serials you found somewhere on the web (or apply cracks), take it to court and you'll be okay. In the very unlikely case of judge or jury deciding in the BSA's favor, take the suit to the next higher court and sue whomever supplied the hardware for misinformation based on your lost trial's outcome. At the very least they misinformed you and broke contracts.
What sucks, though, is the combination of having a few copies of "free" Photoshop installed on some of your (in the BSA's eyes unlicensed) XP boxen. Settling out of court will cost you for each copy of XP, again; going to court might turn out expensive because of the actually unlicensed software.

Notice how the same software companies show up on the list of "pirated" software, and the majority of them are companies whose software is included bundled with computers from major makers.

Microsoft Win XP is likely to be bundled with more or less every system you buy. Windows Server 03, Office Professional and Exchange aren't. Adobe Photoshop Elements might be bundled, too. The Creative Suite 3 that "somehow found it's way on lotsa company X's PCs" isn't.
And, there's an even simpler reason for the prominence of Microsoft, Adobe, Autodesk, McAffee and Symantec on the list: They're frickin' huge, are frickin' everywhere and sell the standard implementation of some extremely common formats (think doc, xls, ppt, psd, pdf, cad, ...). The BSA doesn't care about those cool tools from Joe's Software Shack; they look for widely used software from big vendors with a high chance of being found in any given audit.

Re:Reward Money not that Great

[darthflo]

Microsoft office is NOT free. Everyone on Earth knows that.

Sorry to be so pedantic but you're very very wrong here. Many of the non-techies (even heavy Office users) I know consider Office to be a standard part of Windows. Consumer PCs coming with a 90-day trial preinstalled doesn't help fix that -- after it not launching with a weird "Expired" message, the neighborhood comp kid will, for a few bucks, make it work again.
Finding an alternative is a no-brainer to anyone with some technical background, but many Office users simply don't care about PC internals, including, to many, licensing.

Re:Reward Money not that Great

[cliffski]

people using a word processor can READ. what part of "FREE TRIAL EXPIRED" does an honest person not understand? Don't make excuses for it, people taking software without paying for it is wrong. Everyone knows that. Some try to pretend otherwise to make themselves feel better about doing it.

Re:Reward Money not that Great

[MikeFM]

As a software developer I feel there should be no copyright. I rarely pay for software mostly because the vast majority of proprietary software is overpriced, buggy, and poorly supported. It isn't worth the amount asked but in some cases you still need it due to proprietary file formats that are treated as industry pseudo-standards. In the end, like any industry, it comes down to product quality, return on investment, and customer service. I wonder how long it takes a company using legally purchased copies of Vista, Office, and Adobe Creative Suite to earn back the cost of that software with what their employees are using the software for. In my experience it'd take most employees a pretty long time using that software for it to pay for itself. The output just isn't that valuable.

Most companies need to learn about free alternatives. That way they can avoid these vultures while still having the functionality they need. I think the BSA's enforcement can only help open source grow so I wish them well in their efforts. As for me, I just won't use proprietary crapware whenever a workable alternative exists.

This is fantastic news....

[zappepcs]

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.

Re:Open Source babe

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah, that's why you posted anon. and how much software does a pizza delivery boy really need anyway?

BSA are MS representive

[zukinux]

MS actually donates BSA nice % of their money they use to look for the stealing companies.
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.

Re:BSA are MS representive

[HeavensBlade23]

You don't know how those guys operate, do you? If you don't let them in they come back the next day with federal marshalls in tow.

Re:BSA are MS representive

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

MS actually donates BSA nice % of their money they use to look for the stealing companies.

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.

Re:BSA are MS representive

[r2rknot]

And those federal marshalls still need a warrant to search your home. So yea. Ask for the warrant, even if you think you are innocent, because with a warrant they can only search for the items specified in the warrant. Voluntarily opening your doors allows them even greater scope of rights in what they can look for and where.

Re:BSA are MS representive

[numbski]

At which point you STILL don't let them in without a search warrant. If they want to sue you, that's another matter entirely, but without a search warrant, they have no right to enter your premises.

Re:BSA are MS representive

[FlameSnyper]

Perfect! They now have a warrant, and you've had several hours to clean up any messes!

Re:BSA are MS representive

[Todd Knarr]

Actually in many cases they do have the right. Even if they don't have any proof. A lot of license agreements include an audit clause, and the typical terms are "any time, at the software vendor's discretion, and you pay all costs regardless of whether any violations are found or not". Your only recourse is to not have any software whatsoever with that kind of term in the license, and to provide the BSA with documentation to support this right up front. Then be prepared to spend several times what they're asking defending yourself in court. Yes you'll probably win. No you probably won't be able to recover any of the cost of winning.

Re:BSA are MS representive

[darthflo]

In a properly configured environment, the delta from "now" and "the next day" should be smaller than the amount of time taken to PXE-install RHEL, Suse or Ubuntu (not Gentoo as compiling KDE or Gnome would take too long ;)) on each of your workstations. With the proper backup strategy, "them leaving" and "morning of the day after tomorrow" ought to give you enough time to restore everything back to "now" (or just keep running OSS).

Wrong subject..

[Hsensei]

Should be more aloong the lines of Top 12 Companies that pissed their employees off enough to narc on them.

Copyright infringement

[Besna]

I work in the packaged-software business, and I'd still rather it be called copyright infringement. Words mean things.

Burlington Coat Factory

[rangek]

I thought they went to Linux....

http://www.novell.com/success/burlington.html

I guess maybe they should have gone all the way, so to speak...

Re:Burlington Coat Factory

[SQLGuru]

Maybe after they got this fine they said "screw this" and finished making the switch.....that article doesn't have a date on it, so I can't tell when they made the switch.

Layne

Re:Burlington Coat Factory

[1336]

As per http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/linux/story/0,10801,88191,00.html BCF started switching to Linux c. 1998

stupid advertising

[farker haiku]

Not to be a karma whore or anything, but if these pages bothered you like they did me, here's the info you wanted:

Company: Chef Works, Inc.
Headquarters: San Diego, Calif.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Adobe, Microsoft and Symantec
Settlement Paid: $102,000

Company: Roger's Gardens
Headquarters: Corona Del Mar, Calif.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Adobe, Microsoft and Symantec
Settlement Paid: $73,368

Company: Datatec Systems, Inc.
Headquarters: Alpharetta, Ga.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Adobe, Autodesk, Borland, McAfee, Microsoft and Symantec
Settlement Paid: $69,000

Company: RAIR Technologies, Inc.
Headquarters: Brookfield, Wis.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Microsoft
Settlement Paid: $150,000

Company: J&B Importers, Inc.
Headquarters: Miami, Fla.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Adobe, Microsoft, and Symantec
Settlement Paid: $100,000

Company: Media Lab Ventures, LLC
Headquarters: Tampa, Fla.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Adobe, Autodesk, and Microsoft
Settlement Paid: $125,000

Company: AccentCare, Inc.
Headquarters: Irvine, Calif.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Adobe and Microsoft
Settlement Paid: $240,400

Company: Investors Management Trust Real Estate Group, Inc.
Headquarters: Sherman Oaks, Calif.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Adobe, Microsoft and Symantec
Settlement Paid: $235,000

Company: Global Microwave Systems, Inc.
Headquarters: Carlsbad, Calif.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Adobe, Autodesk, Microsoft and Symantec
Settlement Paid: $231,500

Company: The Waggoners Trucking
Headquarters: Billings, Mont.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Adobe, Microsoft and Symantec
Settlement Paid: $300,000

Company: Burlington Coat Factory
Headquarters: Burlington, N.J.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Microsoft and McAfee
Settlement Paid: $300,000

Company: Payless ShoeSource, Inc.
Headquarters: Topeka, Kan.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Adobe, Autodesk, Borland, Internet Security Systems, McAfee and Symantec
Settlement Paid: $124,057

Many of the BSA's enforcement actions are made possible through the BSA Reward Program, which offers anywhere between $5,000 to $1 million to individuals who report offending companies.

Re:stupid advertising

[hansamurai]

Thank you so much for this, I got sick of clicking next after the first page. I'm really sick of Slashdot linking to all these hundred page articles with one sentence of each information on each page. Makes me want to RTFA even less.

Re:stupid advertising

[ddrichardson]

This is beginning to piss me off as well - this is the second article I've looked at today where I've lost the will to finish because of the way it's laid out.

It's almost as irritating as those posts that link to a blog entry that links to the actual article.

Re:stupid advertising

[SailorSpork]

Ahh, thank you! Looking at all the data at once like that, it's easier to see patterns. Like, every one company on the list seems to be pirating MS products (Office, Windows) and Adobe products (probably Photoshop and Dreamweaver). I would be more interested in seeing aggregate numbers for all companies (instead of a top 10 list) with it broken down by software title instead of by software company. Are those published anywhere?

Re:stupid advertising

[vux984]

Like, every one company on the list seems to be pirating MS products (Office, Windows) and Adobe products (probably Photoshop and Dreamweaver).

Dreamweaver? More likely Acrobat and Photoshop, neither of which are probably even needed. They usually just need some way to edit images and create pdf files. Basic PDF creation is free if you know where to look, and photoshop is monster overkill for the basic cropping/resizing, blurring a license plate, and redeye reduction that is all many of these companies use it for.

Re:stupid advertising

[Gromius]

Thanks for that. And its not karma whoring as this actually required some work and was usefull :)

Seeing the last one now (I couldnt be bothered to keep clicking) leads me to believe that they must have been a victim of the BSA's somewhat onerous required level of proof. I doubt they were intentionally infringing and I bet that in most cases either a) they had paid for it but lost the invoice (but probably had other proof which isnt accepted) b) the software hadnt been properly deleted from a machine but the user wasnt using it (eg a secretary getting a hand me down machine which has something like autodesk). This is just wild speculation but its happened before to Ernie Ball.

The main reason I think this is that Payless ShoeSource has ~4000 stores nationwide so its a fairly large operation. Theres a lot of infringing software listed but yet the fine is relatively small which would lead me to suspect that its a small overall percentage of the software in question. I suspect the Borland + Autodesk were accidental hand me downs and the rest either isolated mistakes or missing receipts. Now this may not be the case but if it is, its pretty off naming and shaming your customers for unintentional violations, given that license compliance can be pretty damn complicated anyways. I wish this article hadnt been posted to slashdot (and I rarely think an article shouldnt have been posted) as at best its pointless and at worse its unfair to the companies involved.

Re:stupid advertising

[randyest]

Thirding this; that "10 worst keyboards" article was as bad as this. One sentence per page, 10+ pages, and no "print" link to see it all at once. I refuse to tolerate such nonsense, even though I do have adblock so none of the pages have any ads at all....just a waste of time.

Wheres Microsoft?

[tristian_was_here]

All these companies being sued for stealing Intellectual Property and none of them where Microsoft.

Re:Wheres Microsoft?

[Ash-Fox]

I do believe there was that whole mp3 licensing stink. Which apparently they still haven't paid last time I checked (Google).

One company missing

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Company: Microsoft
Headquarters: Redmond, WA
Type of Unlicensed Software: Sound Forge
Settlement paid: *CONFIDENTIAL*

Here, I fixed it for you.

Burlington

[WindBourne]

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.

Re:Burlington

[LWATCDR]

They probably have a few desktops that run Windows still. So maybe some copies of Office and some copies of McAffee that didn't have all the paperwork for them.
Should just go and show that you should have gone all FOSS.

Re:Burlington

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Microsoft, Adobe, and Symantec

[RobBebop]

Most of the copyright infringement is for Microsoft, Adobe, and Symantec. Some is for AutoDesk. Less for Borland.

Honestly... besides AutoDesk... none of those companies is even worth infringing upon from.

When will cheap-bastards learn that there are comparable FREE alternatives? Maybe the $100k fines aren't enough. They should try harder to ruin businesses who insist on infringing. Not to be all bad though, they should also offer F/OSS conversion consultants in exchange for the infringement fines (and as a bargaining chip to lessen the fines).

Re:Microsoft, Adobe, and Symantec

[blahplusplus]

"When will cheap-bastards learn that there are comparable FREE alternatives?"

When free alternatives have GOOD ADVERTISING... I wish people would stop making ridiculous comments, people as kids n the warez scene (or not so in the warez scene) grew up on adobe, symantec, etc. It's the same reason why people buy the same product/food over and over again, they're used to it and they know they are getting, plus advertisement commercial products get vs joe programmer who released on some niche website for tech nerds.

Free software has to be A LOT better then the competition to even bother with the search and switch anyway. I used paint.net (free software) and the UI still doesn't compare to adobe even with adobe's gaudy interface it's still usable and I grew up on it.

Re:Microsoft, Adobe, and Symantec

[Stradivarius]

They should try harder to ruin businesses who insist on infringing. It's questionable to assume that these businesses "insist on infringing". Many of the companies in question may have been completely legal, but lost track of the purchase orders from their PC vendor that listed all the bundled software. Since the BSA is a guilty-until-proven-innocent system, you can still get nailed even if you really bought all your software.

And for those that were infringing, we don't know whether it was intentional or not. Some may have been a case of some rogue employee installing software without authorization. That wouldn't make it acceptable, but does speak to intent.

As for the suggested strategy of trying "harder to ruin businesses", that's not how extortion rackets work. If you make the pain level too high, people will rebel (in this case, migrate to open-source or some proprietary company that doesn't participate in the BSA). And then the BSA doesn't get what it wants, which are A) money from raids and B) incentives for businesses to buy their software.

Re:Microsoft, Adobe, and Symantec

[Ash-Fox]

So what's GOOD and FREE alternative to Photoshop? Please don't even think of saying GiMP, because it's gimped compared to Photoshop.

Krita?

Re:Microsoft, Adobe, and Symantec

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

So what's the comparable free alternative to Adobe software? Specifically, InDesign.

That would be LaTeX. Go on laugh, it's supposed to be funny even if it is true in a way.

Re:Microsoft, Adobe, and Symantec

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

So what's GOOD and FREE alternative to Photoshop? Please don't even think of saying GiMP, because it's gimped compared to Photoshop.

There are two issues here. One is the definition of "FREE." Is that "free as in beer" or "free as in freedom?"

Second, GIMP/Seashore/Gimpshop works pretty well for some uses and better than photoshop for large, automated batch processing of images (like if you need to process 600 images for a catalogue). They also suffice for a lot of the low-end graphics work Photoshop is overkill for, but is still used for in corporate environments. Another poster mentioned Krita, which works quite well for many of the tasks people use photoshop for, but certainly not all of them. Really, for high-end one off photo touchups, there is not a lot of free as in beer or free as in freedom alternatives. For probably 80% of the cases where businesses are violating licenses though, I bet one of the above would substitute just fine. For a good chunk of the rest, a lower cost alternative would probably suffice as well, even if it is not free.

And in other news...

[ExE122]

A list of 12 Slashdot Users Caught Whoring Karma in 2007

CowboyNeal
eldavojohn
prostoalex
rpiquepa
theodp
antdude
securitas
freebsddude
Eugenia Loli
Makarand
coondoggie
ExE122

Re:And in other news...

[empaler]

TripmasterMonkey
ILuvRamen

Re:And in other news...

[antdude]

Damn, you got me. :)

Re:And in other news...

[Cervantes]

You forgot CleverNickName.
That karma-whoring bastard.
As soon as I get home I'm starting up a group against him. He's always spitting out +5 posts. I don't even know why everyone loves him or drools over everything he writes.

I think I'll give it some cool, original name, too. I'm leaning towards alt.CleverNickName.die.die.die

Fines?

[sinij]

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.

Read the Ernie Ball story

[symbolset]

It is here.

Re:Read the Ernie Ball story

[alexo]

I would have loved to have fought it. But when (the BSA) went to Congress to get their powers, part of what they got is that I automatically have to pay their legal fees from day one. That's why nobody's ever challenged them--they can't afford it.

WTF?

I see a pattern

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Oh Absolutely.

[AndGodSed]

And this is not the only thing going for them of course. There's so much going for Linux in the market at the moment, and the UI is not that difficult to learn any more either.

And then there is the thing of loadsa choices... it's like being set loose in a candy store.

Isn't that bad logic?

[Petersko]

"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.

Re:Isn't that bad logic?

[Just Some Guy]

If companies just buy the software they intend to use, they don't have to worry about huge fines.

That's so completely untrue. It's not enough to show that you have the software. You must also be able to prove that you bought the software by keeping every receipt and invoice from every vendor. In many companies, this is the full-time responsibility of one or more employees. Use Windows? $50K a year just to have someone to prove you're allowed to. Fun, huh?

Re:Isn't that bad logic?

[Petersko]

"That's so completely untrue. It's not enough to show that you have the software. You must also be able to prove that you bought the software by keeping every receipt and invoice from every vendor. In many companies, this is the full-time responsibility of one or more employees. Use Windows? $50K a year just to have someone to prove you're allowed to. Fun, huh?"

Any company sufficiently large enough to need somebody to keep track of their software licencing should already be keeping every receipt and invoice from every vendor. If they aren't, they've got a fundamentally flawed internal structure. How in heavens name can you do accounting if you don't keep your receipts and invoices?

It's not a full time responsibility of somebody - it's one part of the job of a general asset coordinator. If it's done properly from the start, it takes very little time. Pretending it's unbelievably complex and time-consuming doesn't make it so. And if it is, the company has bigger problems.

Re:Isn't that bad logic?

[Just Some Guy]

It's not a full time responsibility of somebody - it's one part of the job of a general asset coordinator. If it's done properly from the start, it takes very little time.

Actually, zero time for companies that get tired of screwing around with compliance management and upgrade to FOSS.

Re:Isn't that bad logic?

[Stradivarius]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but why in the world would a company need to keep receipts/invoices for capital equipment it bought many years ago? I can see keeping it during the fiscal year maybe for accounting purposes, but afterwards it seems like a lot of paper to keep track of for no purpose I can discern, other than defending against a BSA audit in which you are presumed guilty unless you can prove your innocence.

And for many small businesses, there may not be a position of "general asset coordinator". PC purchases and the like may just be one of many roles handled by the proprietor.

Re:Isn't that bad logic?

[realthing02]

Audits go into years past. Do you throw away your tax returns after you submit them? You should be keeping them for several years. And why wouldn't you keep the receipts for the life of the system?

I understand you don't keep the receipt for the Chinese take out you ate yesterday (unless you're getting reimbursed), but assets used for tax deductions are probably important in case of audits, and in that case you might want to have the piece of paper that says what you paid for it.

Honestly, there are rules business follow- and this is one of them.

Re:Isn't that bad logic?

[Peil]

In the UK all relevant paperwork which may impact your tax must be kept for seven years.
All expense claims, all purchases, the lot.

HMRC may like to give away all our personal info on CD to anyone passing by, but they are without a doubt vindictive b#stards when you are missing a receipt.

Re:Isn't that bad logic?

[Sorthum]

The problem with the BSA audit process is that it's not just the guilty that have to pay up; quite often you wind up with people who paid but can't provide the tremendous amount of documentation the BSA demands (invoices, COAs, purchase orders, etc).

So yes, it's entirely possible for a company to be totally legit and still fined.

Reading through the list I notice 3 things:

[AndGodSed]

1: Lots of Adobe. I think every single one has Adobe and MS products.
2: Some of the pirated software has readily available free alternatives, like Anti-virus Software for one.
3: The settlements paid do not reflect the amount of unlicensed software on the list.

And of course the old question: Define Theft.

Re:Reading through the list I notice 3 things:

[AndGodSed]

How about this?

Re:Reading through the list I notice 3 things:

[tepples]

From the ClamWin page:

Please note that ClamWin Free Antivirus does not include an on-access real-time scanner. This is a deal-breaker for some organizations.

Re:Reading through the list I notice 3 things:

[AndGodSed]

Yeah I also noticed that...

I browsed the tucows archive and found several Anti Virus packages there as well.

BSA's definition of "proof of purchase"

[Peter Simpson]

I'm willing to bet at least some of those companies couldn't find the
original paper receipts and product packaging demanded by the BSA.
The BSA's standards are overly strict IMHO, and the last time this
topic came up, the best advice was from a couple of lawyers who
posted "don't let 'em past the front doors, tell them to come back with a subpoena."

Has anyone actually gone to court with copies of purchase orders and
records of payment to vendors?

Re:BSA's definition of "proof of purchase"

[SpacePunk]

That's probably pretty much the situation. I'm surprised they don't demand the shipping boxes with the UPS labels also.

The title isn't misleading.

[Coopjust]

You're kidding, right? It says "12 Companies CAUGHT Stealing Software in 2007.

Re:The title isn't misleading.

[DrSkwid]

I would still think that was shorthand for "10 [of] the movies released in 2008"

What a letdown

[Just Some Guy]

From the title, I thought it was going to be an exciting tale about a bunch of companies that robbed a warehouse full of software. Such a disappointment to find that it didn't involve stealing at all, but just some boring copyright violation.

Re:What a letdown

[Technician]

Such a disappointment to find that it didn't involve stealing at all, but just some boring copyright violation.

What's not boring is the amount of money stolen from the companies through the legal system. People wonder why the jobs are going overseas.. Many places have lower labor rates and lower risk to doing business. I don't blame them for pulling out and moving to a place less dangerous to business. This does not just impact the companies directly involved. It has chilling effects. The business climate is tested by anyone wanting to start a business and anyone in business. Your next job may simply not be there.

Car analogy inbound

[zappepcs]

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.

Re:Car analogy inbound

[berzerke]

If you get caught driving the Chevy without the license, it will cost you way more than the license fee.

As another has already pointed out, it should be: "If you get caught driving the Chevy without the license or can't find the proper proof you paid for the license...". Remember kiddies, original boxes, certificates of authenticity, and stickers are not proper proof.

Title is akward then

[techpawn]

You're kidding, right?

No, it reads as though only 12 companies where caught in the whole of 2007. I'm sure more than 12 companies where caught stealing, but these are just top 12.

It has nothing to do with "not getting it"

[Petersko]

"Hmmmm you just don't get it, do you?" I do. Apparently you don't.

"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....."

Now if you had said, "Next time someone asks me why they shouldn't just use pirated commercial software, I'm going to hand them this list", then I would agree with you. The list is irrelevant for people who have paid for their software.

I'm not contesting your second post. It just has nothing to do with your first one.

Re:It has nothing to do with "not getting it"

[TooMuchToDo]

The problem is the ridiculously high burden of proof. The COA sticker on the side of the PC? Not good enough. Make sure you have the original PO for every PC. For 10 PCs, that's not a problem. But for hundreds? Ridiculous. While it may be more expensive upfront to go with FOSS, you have to think of it as insurance. Better to pay a bit more instead of getting raped by the BSA, eh?

"I thought I saw that software before"

[peter303]

I say that whenever I hear MicroSoft announce a new product.

Free as in ????

[P-38Jbird]

Someone clue me in. Most software I've seen is 'free for personal use'. I haven't seen much that is an alternative to MS and Sym that is free for corporate use.

Stealing?

[Anonymous Coward]

You forget that this is the BSA we're talking about. Their idea of "stealing" is that you don't still have your purchase orders for EVERY last computer. You thought that sticker on the machine was any good? Forget it. If you lack a PO, you're not licensed to them. Then they use the "force people to settle or you pay even more" tactic so these things rarely go to court.

But you don't believe me, right? Here's the story of someone who has been through the BSA ringer.

Oh well, at least he learned his lesson: stick with FOSS. No licensing games, no hassle. Just one lousy rule to abide by: distribute the source with the binaries. Not difficult.

Re:Stealing?

[tepples]

Oh well, at least he learned his lesson: stick with FOSS. No licensing games, no hassle. You mean like the incompatibility between GNU licenses (GPL, GFDL) and Creative Commons licenses (CC-BY, CC-BY-SA)? I can explain if you wish.

Re:Stealing?

[Todd Knarr]

Those incompatibilities all affect only combining code under different licenses into a single application and then distributing that application outside the company. That affects really very few companies. The vast majority only use F/OSS, which means the different licenses don't interact with each other at all.

Re: Getting "Theft" Right

[TaoPhoenix]

From the People's Law Dictionary by Gerald and Kathleen Hill:

theft
n. the generic term for all crimes in which a person intentionally and fraudulently takes personal property of another without permission or consent and with the intent to convert it to the taker's use (including potential sale).

RIAA's music (under contract from artist.) Person downloads without permission with intent to convert to downloader's use.

take
v. to gain or obtain possession. This includes downloading copies.

Copying vs. obtaining an original object does not affect these definitions.

Re: Getting "Theft" Right

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

take v. to gain or obtain possession. This includes downloading copies.

Don't you think it is more than a little deceptive to include the second sentence, which is your own personal comment, on the same line? How do you figure making a copy of something is "taking" it. If I go to the museum and copy a photograph with my camera, do they arrest me on the way out for "stealing" a priceless painting? Gee, not they don't. Someone might say I've "taken" a photograph, but no one would tell the police or employees that I've "taken" the painting. They are separate laws with separate names for a reason. Trying to conflate them contributes to the dumbing down of our society and at the same time helps those people who abuse our legal system to make absurd copyright laws muddy the waters by confusing people into thinking they are the same things.

Copying vs. obtaining an original object does not affect these definitions.

Yes, it does. When you copy something you don't gain possession of it. The person who owns it still has possession. You take possession of a new item, which is a copy of the original and is a new thing, made of new molecules, or electrons or whatever. Copying != stealing and your argument to the contrary is crap.

Burlington Coat factory?

[gillbates]

Didn't they switch to Linux a few years ago?

Maybe they didn't switch all of their computers, maybe they switched back, or maybe they just figured it would be easier to pay off the BSA than go to court.

Re:Burlington Coat factory?

[anon mouse-cow-aard]

They switched their store systems over... http://www.novell.com/success/burlington.html
I bet this is their desktops in back offices and such.
perhaps this will be 'inspiring' to them to finish the job.

Re: Getting "Theft" Right

[rtb61]

I don't know if you have seen that anit-piracy add but,

You wouldn't steal a car (no, but I would copy it)

You wouldn't steal a purse (no, but I would copy it)

You wouldn't steal a cell phone (no, but I would copy it)

You wouldn't steal a movie (hmm, just let me ponder the previous examples) ;).

If there was technology that would let me readily copy any of the initial examples, bugger anybody that tried to stop me. Sometimes commercials can really teach you the exact opposite of what some PR git intended.

Advertisement for the BSA

[tkrotchko]

The whole thing is an advertisement for the BSA.

If it was an actual article, there might have been some sort of analysis done, or some sort of inquiry made. But nope, just took the BSA's word for it.

How many companies paid $100K rather than deal with it in court?

5 steps to make a profit, BSA style...

[pelrun]

1. Become disgruntled IT manager at large company
2. Install pirated software across the enterprise
3. Quit
4. Call BSA
5. Profit!!

Re:BS are "/." representive

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

This is slashdot and quite frankly I don't think you all are capable of making the distinctions but causing someone else to lose their trust in you let alone their investment in time and effort is certainly as real as any BS excuse this forum can come up with for treating their fellow men like s**t over entertainment.

Hey clueless... how many artistic works died today because no one knows who owns the copyright and the last copy just deteriorated? Hey clueless... how many great works of the past would never have been recognized as such if the copyright period had not expired before the last copy was destroyed? Hey clueless... how many copyrighted works make a profit after the first 4 years? ... after the first 20 years? Hey clueless... what percentage of commercial copyrighted works are owned or sold by the creator instead of being transferred to someone else?

Copyright can be a very useful motivation and foster innovation. It can also hinder innovation, be used as a form of censorship, and be abused by those who can influence the legal system. I don't know anyone educated on the topic of intellectual property who is willing to argue our current copyright laws are better at fostering innovation and getting works into the hands of the people than the laws we had in the 60s; that is unless they're being paid to make that argument.

A book my mother wrote when she was just out of college is out of print and has been for three decades and because in order to get it published and distributed in the first place she had to transfer the copyright to a publishing house. She's retired now. She can't even find or make a copy to give to her grandchildren without breaking the law. Given current interpretation of copyright law, there is no reason to believe it will ever be legal to make a copy, even if she found one in a library. Given current laws on the books, it won't be legal to make such a copy till about 2090. Do tell me, how is this fostering innovation? Our current copyright laws are very, very, very broken in order to profit a few big companies at the expense of the people. It is bad for books, and worse yet for newer media like music (nearly 80% of all classic blues is out of print an unobtainable), video games (can you legally play classic games whose copyright is assigned to unknown parties and hardware to play it on does not exist), movies (did you know "It's a Wonderful Life" would never have been popular unless its copyright had expired and it was aired for free on PBS, it tanked at the box office), etc.

Said by a man who can't even grasp the historic period he's in, typed on a machine, educated in a society that seen a greater growth than any other time in human history exactly because of IP.

Please. Innovation has slowed down considerably since say, the 50s. Just because copyright is useful to foster innovation, does not mean our current version of the laws can't do just the opposite. I make my living primarily by creating copyrighted works, but right now I think revoking all copyright law in the US would be better than keeping our current laws and relegating the majority of our artistic heritage to destruction. I'd be willing to find alternative ways to profit from my works, a great inconvenience, and opposed to my personal, best interests.

Maybe you need to educate yourself on the real issues before spouting off.

What About The BSA Members?

[GaryPatterson]

Let's write our own list with stories about the BSA members.

Like... remember when Microsoft ripped off code from Apple's QuickTime and ended up paying $150M to Apple? Or when they pirated that disk compression software and ended up paying... well, probably lots of money... to... that company?

Okay, clearly my memory isn't perfect here, but who's got a good story about Adobe, Apple, Microsoft or someone else ripping off another company, infringing copyright or otherwise acting illegally?

After all, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Let's expose them all!

Re:What About The BSA Members?

[dotancohen]

Not exactly what you're after, but MS wound up paying an estimated $24 million to Lindows after suing them for the name.

Re:Excellent list of high risk software!

[Technician]

The list is great for software to avoid as high liability.

Hey!

[symbolset]

What about me?

Re: Getting "Theft" Right

[darthflo]

You wouldn't steal a baby.

You wouldn't shoot a policeman and then steal his helmet.

You wouldn't go to the toilet in his helmet ...

And then send it to the policeman's grieving widow

And then steal it again!

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAr7zKxjCDY from The IT Crowd.]

Re:BS are "/." representive

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

Did you ever notice that some people switch to posting as an anonymous coward for replies, right after they have their asses handed to them in a discussion, when their opponent points out their extreme ignorance and stupidity? Change your mind, it's starting to smell.

Your interpretation is incorrect

[0p7imu5_P2im3]

You interpret the word "convert" to mean "add." I disagree.

I choose to agree with the definition of "convert" given by The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition:

"To change (something) from one use, function, or purpose to another; adapt to a new or different purpose: convert a forest into farmland.

You see, in the use of pirated software, one has not "...converted[changed] it to the taker's use..." because the original owner of the "personal property" continues to retain use of the property.

I will freely agree that the use of pirated software is illegal, copyright infringement, and that I don't condone or participate in it. However, to call it theft is the equivalent of tossing people of Asian decent in the US into concentration camps during WWII. It's just wrong.