One of the questions we ask when we hire at my company is: "Tell me about a time when you face a value or ethical conflict at work. What did you do and what was the outcome". Now, you don't know the outcome yet, but frankly, I would applaud your efforts (at a minimum) for recognizing that this isn't right. Whether or not it's illegal isn't the question. Someone once said "it's not illegal until you get caught". Well, hang on for the ride. I can see your boss asking you to acquire counterfeit copies of software next. He's only a heartbeat away from that request.
In summary - run, and run quickly. The economy may be in the toilet, but there are always jobs out there for people with high standards and ethics.
I think that the industry in general would be very wise very quickly to a company trying to release a 1.0 version of the software and calling it 5.0, 6.0 or anything else. I think its one of the primary reasons that Microsoft (until recently) has quit "numbering" their releases. Windows XP, Windows NT, Windows Vista, Office 2007 (even though internally it's called Office 12 still - look at your install directory names!). There is a huge disadvantage to any software in the marketplace that would want to be called 1.0. I think it adds skepticism of the newness of a product. I think I would advise your company to completely skip the 1.0, 5.0, 6.0 and just name the product appropriately...maybe Product 2008 or something like that.....
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One of the questions we ask when we hire at my company is: "Tell me about a time when you face a value or ethical conflict at work. What did you do and what was the outcome". Now, you don't know the outcome yet, but frankly, I would applaud your efforts (at a minimum) for recognizing that this isn't right. Whether or not it's illegal isn't the question. Someone once said "it's not illegal until you get caught". Well, hang on for the ride. I can see your boss asking you to acquire counterfeit copies of software next. He's only a heartbeat away from that request. In summary - run, and run quickly. The economy may be in the toilet, but there are always jobs out there for people with high standards and ethics.
I think that the industry in general would be very wise very quickly to a company trying to release a 1.0 version of the software and calling it 5.0, 6.0 or anything else. I think its one of the primary reasons that Microsoft (until recently) has quit "numbering" their releases. Windows XP, Windows NT, Windows Vista, Office 2007 (even though internally it's called Office 12 still - look at your install directory names!). There is a huge disadvantage to any software in the marketplace that would want to be called 1.0. I think it adds skepticism of the newness of a product. I think I would advise your company to completely skip the 1.0, 5.0, 6.0 and just name the product appropriately...maybe Product 2008 or something like that.....