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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."
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
I don't see any possible way for this to go wrong.
This is NOT whistleblowing, this is denunciation. But 57K in 2010 states that such traitors are rare, because ...
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!
You're a rather sad person, I think. Snitching on a company or two, for something serious, may or may not be justified. I'd have to judge each case on it's own merits. But, snitching on ALL of your employers? That's just low. You admit that you are digging for something with which to punish them when you are gone. In effect, you have little value to a company, you know that you'll be terminated sooner or later, so you're actively searching for a way to punish them from the day you start. You should change your sig. "sucks2bme"
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
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.
If you give monkeys poo, they'll throw it.
;)
Better to be honest, and then those you piss off wont be able to drop you in it. It's not like anyone should be running a business thinking, I'll defraud a few companies and I'll get away with it because all my employees love me and it will be that way forever!
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
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..
Yeah. When you hire someone, you want to know that they are at least dependable in a general sense. If they have a history of selling out their employers; that shows they are willing to turn on you if you piss them off. Odds are that these people were offended by their bosses in some way just before they reported on them; which is why they no longer work there... they were fired or quit.
How do you kill that which has no life?
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.
The buck stops at the top. Only when a corporation has paid someone off in some way can they get away with blaming an individual employee in that way. A CEO or CFO, etc. are supposed to know that all "tools" used are not stolen, pirated, etc.
Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.
BULLSHIT Airdorn. Have you ever been in some of these shops? Let me tell you how it works: They expect YOU to spend all day installing hot software which they will then blame YOU if anybody catches them on it. Does it seem like there is any upside for YOU? Nope, not a bit.
Hell I even had an interview that went like this: Owner "It says here you know how to setup Windows and Linux servers, is that right?" Me- yes sir not a problem. Owner "Can you set up a Windows machine so it updates from our server instead of Windows Update?" Me-Why would you want to do that? Owner "So we can use this with all our clients and field offices" and then plops out a "Razor1911 Vista Ultimate all version no activation" DVD on the desk. Needless to say I just laughed and walked away, but what about the guy who has no choice but to take the job because he is hurting for work?
So don't be pushing that sour grapes bullshit because a lot of these guys don't want to be pushing illegal software but are told "Do this or walk" by their bosses. Hell there was about 3 years there where damned near every office machine that crossed my desk all had the exact same key which was the "Razor1911 XP Pro SP2" serial key. The reason? Because there were a ton of PHBs in middle management and owners of SMBs that wanted free upgrades for the Win2K boxes they had.
So don't make this out to be some disgruntled employee, because I bet if you were to check back with them a lot quit over hot software in the first place. Or do you think it is okay to steal, as long as it is from companies you don't like?
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
He's probably an American. Most of them believe that being high-up in business equates you with a messiah, and openly worship corporations.
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.
They rounded up, it's 57480, 1916 times 30 pieces of silver.
Good so copying isn't stealing which means I can lock up GPL code in my apps and you're totally cool with that, right? It is just copying some bits, fuck the GPL!
Oh but you don't like that do you? Well I hate to break the news to ya but whether GPL or proprietary you are STILL ripping someone off.
And lets be honest MR Coward, your "solutions" suck except for a couple of little niches like web servers. Where is my FOSS QuickBooks? Where is my FOSS PhotoShop? Where is my FOSS version of the 50 million specialized apps, everything from nursing assistants to parts inventory? Oh right they don't exist, because everyone in FOSS seems to think all you need is a desktop and a web browser...riiight.
So in conclusion MR Coward it isn't some "conspiracy" why FOSS is at 1% and frankly stagnant, it is because you don't give the people what they want and the proprietary companies do. People say they want a CLI free desktop they get told by you "RTFA noob!" while Apple and MSFT are more than happy to take that business. They ask where the apps they require to do their job or the driver the need for their equipment is and get told "write it yourself", meanwhile other companies are happy to write them precisely because they can get paid to do it.
So please, go right ahead and push illegal software so you can "stick it to the man", I just hope you are ready for the "fun" of a BSAA audit when someone who gets pissed at your little solution decides to cash you in.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Oh wow, Microsoft astroturfer doesn't know what to do with the article and posts generic insults about GIMP not supporting CMYK or something.
Fuck you and fuck your employers. We will defend Microsoft from piracy until no one will dare to use Microsoft software, pirated or otherwise.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
I would be more concerned that he works only for the companies that can be snitched on, rather than about anything else in his career.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
Ow wow, a Linux fanboi doesn't have the fucking common sense to read what he is posting to and spews bullshit! Surprise surprise. In case you didn't bother to read the parent post, which is obvious either you didn't or just didn't have enough cells to comprehend, let me break it down for you: Mr Coward wrote that if a company for whatever reason wouldn't take a "FOSS solution" he would "stick it to the man" by giving them hot Windows and illegal software, and then went on a rant about how copying isn't stealing and its all just bits and then told me to go fuck myself, just like you drooling fanoi that you are.
So I then pointed out that he (and you) are complete and total hypocrites because you have a shitfit when a corp steals GPL code but think it is just hunky dory to steal from corps you don't like. Well you can't have it both ways fanboi, either it is wrong to take from both, or it isn't wrong to take GPL code and stick behind a paywall because "it is just copying" and licenses don't mean shit.
So which is it? Since you jumped in with support for the AC I'm sure you agree with him that piracy in the workplace is cool as long as you are "sticking it to the man" right? So you don't mind if corps take the hard work of GPL volunteers and lock it up right? Its just copying?
NOW do you see your own blatant hypocrisy Alex? You are all for protections when it comes to GPL but deny those same protection when it comes to a company you don't like. It is THIS, this right here, that has turned me off from FOSS. The fanboyism, the elitist and hypocritical bullshit that infects the entire community that turned me off of it. So you go right ahead and call me names, and convince yourself that it is all a conspiracy and that nobody would choose anything but your precious GPL. Nope it couldn't be that many are tired of your bullshit and failed promises, nope couldn't be that.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
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.
As I have said in the previous message, I am all for protecting Microsoft from "pirates" who are now the driving force behind its popularity AND are a major source of continuing idiotic demands to make all software mimic Microsoft.
Just don't pick and choose -- if Microsoft wants to protect itself from "piracy", we will make sure that it's protected from all piracy, including repair shops and home users who spread Microsoft disease.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.