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Piracy Whistleblowers Paid $57K In 2010
alphadogg writes "In 2010, the Software and Information Industry Association received 157 reports of alleged corporate end user software piracy. Of the 157 reports, 42 (or 27%) were judged sufficiently reliable to pursue. Of these, 16 qualified for rewards totaling $57,500. The profile of sources reporting software piracy indicates that most reports come from former IT staff – these are the people who typically witness the illegal use of software. 75% of all reports come from IT staff or managers, 11% from the company's senior management and 4% from outside consultants. More than 59% of those reporting are no longer employed by the target company. In fact, many of SIIA's sources report that their primary reason for leaving the target company was the company's lack of ethical behavior related to software compliance."
100% sour grapes.
In fact, many of SIIA's sources report that their primary reason for leaving the target company was the company's lack of ethical behavior related to software compliance.
It's a shock what people lose sleep over in this day and age.
:. Ultimate Control Dedicated/VM Servers
pirated software also hurts open source take up too.
More than 59% of those reporting are no longer employed by the target company.
Yep, and I wonder how many are unemployable?
Or, how many can actually get another job?
Two things you never want to be associated with:
1. Thief.
2. Whistleblower.
$3,593.75 isn't worth it for me. If there were piracy going on where I worked and management was part of it, I'd keep my mouth shut and leave.
No company wants someone who's going to go reporting on illegal activity - none. They may say they do, but in reality, they don't.
Everyone, let alone entire companies, has something to hide. You may not know it, but you do - there's just too many laws, IP, regulations and whatnot to run afoul.
"In 2010, SIIA sent approximately 1400 demand letters, collected close $40,000 in restitution."
That's under $30/letter on average. From the SIIA website:
"Those who report piracy taking place within an organization to SIIA may be eligible for a reward of up to $1 million."
From TFA:
"In 2010, the Software and Information Industry Association received 157 reports of alleged corporate end user software piracy. Of the 157 reports, 42 (or 27%) were judged sufficiently reliable to pursue. Of these 16 qualified for rewards totaling $57,500."
$57k for 16 cases is a far cry from "Up to $1M". Could it be that they're being deceptive/misleading?
make imaginary.friends COUNT=100 VISIBLE=false
OK So these people may feel morally better. They probably are.
But when asked the question during an interview. "Why did you leave you last organization?" Answer "Oh I turned them in for a few thousand dollars."
That is a career limiting move.
Yah it's wrong but it's true.
Then there is the industry. Only coughing up $57,000 grand total. That's not even an IT persons full time salary for a year. The reward or even stigma of the reward is doing more damage to personal lives than the good of correcting the poor behavior of companies. I'm sure MS has paid more for a poster about piracy than it paid out to people doing the right thing.
It just makes me shake my head.
Only 57k total ???? I would expect from one, half decent bust. Sounds like beer money rather than bait. Let's face it, animus, deserved or not, is the big motivator.
You shouldn't be surprised, because typically these bounties state that you get some percentage of the money collected as damages through a court, but most cases are never reach that state, they're settled out of court. The idea that you can "turn someone in and become rich" is but a dream; in all likelihood you'll never see a dime. You'll just be that guy.
Belief is the currency of delusion.
In fact, many of SIIA's sources report that their primary reason for leaving the target company was the company's lack of ethical behavior related to software compliance.
so they say then eh .... rather, they got fired, laid off, or quit/changed jobs and decided to make a quick buck or to take revenge.
Read radical news here
Get stiches!!!
I don't see any possible way for this to go wrong.
57K is 3.5K per person who got the rewards. You can't even rent a flat for one month for that price. 16/157 is one out of ten that got a reward. In comparison four out of ten got to keep their jobs. For now.
Arent these the type of people the RIAA love, not whistle blowers but snitches willing to sell their souls for a buck.
This is NOT whistleblowing, this is denunciation. But 57K in 2010 states that such traitors are rare, because ...
http://northcountrynow.com/news/massena-masons-will-hold-id-event-during-winter-carnival-feb-19-020526
Of course, there is another plausible scenario:
Which isn't to say that some of those reports aren't made by highly principled people, of course. But I bet I know which category had the most hits...
Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
They are no "whistleblowers", they should better be compared to these people which were pointing jude families to the NASI during WW2...
And SIAA could be compared to the NASI (or the Inquisition) for asking for such letters... Instead of rewarding such a behaviour, it should be strongly punished...
Both the SIAA and these denunciators should be dragged to court in chains for such a lame behaviour !!!
The HUGE reward was that I moved on, while that small company continued to fail, and actually tried to bribe Government investigators, as to their contract qualifications! They cheated 49 staff employees out of pay, intimidated everyone, and stole works from legitimate competitors. Glad they are gone from this classified government contracting arena, they won't be missed. I still wonder if they were on the payroll of foreign governments who are enemies to free countries. Well, my work there was done, and these workers won many awards from the clients, but, all glory and money was stolen from us, by the bosses! Dilbert moment, in real life! Nope, I got no cash reward, nor did the other folks who joined me in turning in this scum to several agencies. Our reward is that evil did NOT win in any way, and we are still a FREE people! Charges were brought, fines were levied, Jail was threatened for the bosses. BTW, I don't give a crap about the proprietary software venue, but, theft is a crime, as is mistreatment of employees, and sooner or later, evil villains will fall. Happy to have stopped their massacre of innocent victims! Often, the theft of Intellectual Property is only the tip of the iceberg! If they don't run FLOSS, I am very wary of working for them! Using only proprietary software, indicates that they are not the right kind of intellect to use all available tools, and can't compete with those who do use Free, Libre, Open Source Software! IOW, I can't tolerate idiots as bosses! I fire them as soon as they answer my question about FLOSS use, during the interview!
It isn't as though piracy in every company will be the same. So suppose that you work for a company and piracy is widespread, they don't pay for any of their apps. This includes apps by small developers, for who the couple thousand licenses would be a major, major sale. You go and talk to management about it and get told "You'll keep your mouth shut if you know what is good for you."
In that case, I'd say you are quite justified going to an anti-piracy group, even if they do offer a reward. After all you tried to deal with the problem internally and couldn't, and the company is just ripping off others for their own gain.
Now on the other hand if you work at a company where most software is licensed. You occasionally find some unlicensed stuff, but it is clearly not the norm or the policy. Things like users installing their own stuff because there are poor IT policies, or a group pirating something they need to do their job because their supervisor is incompetent. Management is clearly unaware of this, and you never bring it to their attention.
In that case ya I'll call you a money grubbing asshole if you go to an anti-piracy group. After all it is entirely possible that the situation would be rectified if brought to someone's attention and if you don't want to do that for risk of retribution, just let it go, it isn't a big deal.
I used to work with an "IT Professional" that had previously worked for the Geek Squad while he was in school. He bragged about all the money he got turning people in for illegal copies of Windows/Office. Microsoft would give him $100 for everyone he turned in and then call/threaten the person in question into buying a full copy of their software. I mentioned the fact that a lot of these people were probably totally unaware that someone had put illegal copies of windows on their computer (if they had the tech knowledge to be installing pirated copies of windows, they'd have little need for the geek squad) it was probably a relative or on the computer when they purchased it. His reply was "So?" at which point I decided he was a worthless excuse for a human being and stopped talking to him.
That said, turning in any business that's intentionally pirating software, even Microsofts, is morally legit in my book.
If you're stupid enough to admit you turned in your last company for software piracy during an interview, you might want to consider these interviewing tips:
1. Leave out the part about banging your secretary in the closet at the Christmas party. (This is a true story, an executive of a company I used to work for did this and was fired the next work day).
2. Don't mention how you hacked in and read others' emails.
3. Don't mention your recent discovery of youporn.
4. Don't mention that you are a scratch golfer. (Another true story - an underperforming sales rep took his bosses golfing and shot even - they realized he was spending too much time on golf).
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
lots of repair shops load illegal copies of Window illegal copies of Windows/Office on systems.
In company's some of it is poor paper work that makes some of the software illegal copies other it's PHB that have no idea or cheap higher ups that will not take that you can not have that software on there systems with out having to pay for it. Other times some taking a high cost piece of software and useing one copy for the full office.
75% of all reports come from IT staff or managers, 11% from the company's senior management and 4% from outside consultants. More than 59% of those reporting are no longer employed by the target company.
It sounds to me like 75% of the reports come from the people who probably installed the software in the first place, and most of them made the report after they were fired or quit.
I work at a print shop, and my boss is good at getting licenses for Office and Adobe, but for lesser-known programs, for instance $200 for VectorMagic, a magnificient raster-to-vector tool created at Stanford. I simply refuse when he asks me to pirate it, reminding him how much time (money) we would save despite the cost, but he refuses to buy it.
Somehow, the stats really just don't surprise me at all. Although after this I'm sure all the IT managers will be scrambling to drop a few things..
is to never use anything but FOSS. Yes I know there will be those who respond, "But I work for a specialized X company doing Y and we have to use specialized software Z that only runs on Windows. Therefore, there is no way we could ever switch to FOSS." And that describes exactly 1% of all companies in the world.
The vast majority of companies use a browser, a file server, word processor, spreadsheet, and email. Those problems were solved by FOSS long, long ago.
So use FOSS exclusively in your company and the BSA is a bag of troubles you'll never have to worry about.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
In most corporations, IT is responsible for this kind of stuff. Responsible as in "the one standing in front of the judge". It's like having to pay, personally, for any speed tickets in your company with no power to stop their speeding. Since that responsibility doesn't stop after you leave. You still are liable for the period when you were in post.
Whistling them becomes the best way to avoid paying for the corporation infringements.
Think about it.
They should just go to the repair dept. of Futureshop/Best buy, they will find more than enough pirated softwares. The same can be said about pretty much every other PC stores that offers Repair or installation.
First off, Piracy is a CIVIL matter, not a criminal one. Worst that can happen to you in a civil suit is your company loses money, you won't lose a nickel. You won't go to jail unless they can prove you violated DMCA and honestly you'd have to REALLY piss them off to get that to happen.
The copyright owners might like it to be a criminal one, but it isn't and never will be because copyright is a grey area.
Second it isn't theft. To steal one must willfully suspend belief in the concept of property; to do so one willfully suspends belief in the idea one is oneself's property, and suspends the awareness of whom one is owned by. What is property? By the dictionary Property is either a tangible asset or a granted privilege over an inalieble right. A chair falls under the former, and Intellectual property and Patents fall under the ladder; you can't force people to stop thinking up great ideas, but you can exclude them from persuing them or force them to pay royalties if you thought of it first; an ethically debatable privilege with lively discourse.
Finally, Congress and the SCOTUS have ruled time and time again that everything from 1928 and onward is copy-written to ensure Disney can maintain control over Mickey mouse, among other companies wanting control over their bread-and-butter media. Everything that culture is from the characters in comic books to the sounds you hear on TV are owned; to destroy fair use and public domain is to destroy the very reason for the public to consent to such a system and I would argue once the length of a copyright, patent, or Intellectual property reaches the average lifetime of the body public this rubic has been met and it is invalid. A copyright of 10 years is reasonable and it's arguable characters are registrable trademarks anyway.
If my boss starts asking me to install pirated software, I'm going to ask for that in e-mail or in writing before I do it as I'm not about to take the heat for his risk. If he asks me to crack and install pirated software, the answer is send me an e-mail request to which I will print, place in the file at home, and reply no way because that carries criminal charges and I'm not stupid. If the company is doing a lot of civilly and criminally stupid things I'm going to contact the local PD, sit down with a Lieutenant and talk over what he needs me to do to reel in the lot and if it's a situation where the police are bought, I'm probably going to figure out what needs to be done to put an end to it.
I wonder how many of those who reported this obtained and/or installed pirated software. I am guessing that a lot of the time when businesses are reported, it is revenge motivated.
Even if the person reporting the piracy wasn't the one who actually pirated the software, I hardly find reporting businesses to the BSA to be admirable behavior.
"75% of all reports come from IT staff or managers" and 99.9% of that segment are vindictive little weasels that were fired for dangerously severe incompetence and of whom possessed social skills of a piece of molded cheese with a maggot on top. Honor my ass. Post your heroism on facebook you morons.
I thought whistleblowing was ebil? Or is it OK as long as it helps the powerful?
It was open source but Paint.net is not open source. The author was annoyed at people misrepsenting and reselling his work and closed the codebase.