I can sadly relate. The company I work for has *severe* licensing issues.
What makes it more ironic/depressing/hypocritical is that we are a software development company.
Based on my position in the company, I report to the IT Manager, who reports directly to the CEO. No matter how much I push, I’ve not been able to get any real change.
Basically the CEO is tight and doesn’t want to spend money, at all. We have one (legit) MSDN subscription which is used by ~80 developers, in addition to powering all our production servers. Not to mention we’ve got a *ton* of shareware on people’s desktops which is never paid for.
I talk to my boss (IT Manager) about it who basically shrugs and goes “yeah? What do you want me to do about it?”
Given that the company is fairly laid back, I actually went direct to the CEO – he’s well aware of the problem, but his excuse is that “We’re a software development company, when we make a sale, Microsoft makes a sale” (eg. Our software will only work on a Windows system, so we’re apparently making Microsoft money by writing our software targeted at a Microsoft platform)
I’ve brought up the issues about the rewards for people to turn them in, and the general manager of the company basically said to me “Look, I know what we’re doing is wrong, and I know we’re going to be found out eventually, it’s just a matter of time – our plan is just to plead for mercy when Microsoft finally does come knocking”.
For me personally, the best I can do is to distance myself from the topic as best I can. I’ve ensured that my concerns have been heard, and are actually in writing, if the time ever comes that I may need to rely on.
I’ve made (very small) changes, I’ve stopped installing evaluation versions of WinZip/WinRAR and replaced it with 7-Zip, I’ve stopped installing TextPad on developer’s machines and replaced it with Notepad ++.
Other than that, all I can do is cringe when a staff member comes up to the IT department and says “Hey, I need installed on my PC, do we have a license for that?” and my boss says “Yeah, sure, no worries, we’ll have it installed by tomorrow”
(and sorry BSA et al. I am paranoid, so posting this from a newly-created throw-away account via Tor)
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I can sadly relate. The company I work for has *severe* licensing issues.
What makes it more ironic/depressing/hypocritical is that we are a software development company.
Based on my position in the company, I report to the IT Manager, who reports directly to the CEO. No matter how much I push, I’ve not been able to get any real change.
Basically the CEO is tight and doesn’t want to spend money, at all. We have one (legit) MSDN subscription which is used by ~80 developers, in addition to powering all our production servers. Not to mention we’ve got a *ton* of shareware on people’s desktops which is never paid for.
I talk to my boss (IT Manager) about it who basically shrugs and goes “yeah? What do you want me to do about it?”
Given that the company is fairly laid back, I actually went direct to the CEO – he’s well aware of the problem, but his excuse is that “We’re a software development company, when we make a sale, Microsoft makes a sale” (eg. Our software will only work on a Windows system, so we’re apparently making Microsoft money by writing our software targeted at a Microsoft platform)
I’ve brought up the issues about the rewards for people to turn them in, and the general manager of the company basically said to me “Look, I know what we’re doing is wrong, and I know we’re going to be found out eventually, it’s just a matter of time – our plan is just to plead for mercy when Microsoft finally does come knocking”.
For me personally, the best I can do is to distance myself from the topic as best I can. I’ve ensured that my concerns have been heard, and are actually in writing, if the time ever comes that I may need to rely on.
I’ve made (very small) changes, I’ve stopped installing evaluation versions of WinZip/WinRAR and replaced it with 7-Zip, I’ve stopped installing TextPad on developer’s machines and replaced it with Notepad ++.
Other than that, all I can do is cringe when a staff member comes up to the IT department and says “Hey, I need installed on my PC, do we have a license for that?” and my boss says “Yeah, sure, no worries, we’ll have it installed by tomorrow”
(and sorry BSA et al. I am paranoid, so posting this from a newly-created throw-away account via Tor)