Pirated software at a company? [closed]

Solution 1:

I would first approach the "powers that be" regarding this practice. If they refuse to listen, take it to the BSA or whoever handles this in your area.

A company that sells a product expects to be paid for that product. I'm sure if the shoe were on the other foot (i.e. the company's product was being pirated) they would pursue it. It is idiocy to think you can sell product but cheat others out of theirs.

Solution 2:

What they use is not your business, for as long as this does not affect you. If your personal working place is 100% legal, they do not ask you to use pirated software, pay you the salary, just work and don't think too much.

If they ask you to use pirated software, you have two options, either agree and be complicit or to reject. If in the latter case you get fired, then you can pursue legal ways to request compensation for lost time, income and other damages.

You got out of there and did the right thing. Enjoy the life.

ADDED: The question of morality of turning the company over is not that easy. The moral varies from culture to culture. In some countries (mostly of western civilization) communicating every act of lawbreaking (even within family/parents/children) to authorities is a normal practice. In other countries this could be considered a highly amoral action with the actor losing his face/respect of others and under circumstances even risking getting revenge (seriously consider it if your action will ultimately ruin their business). I'd personally would consider a neutral position. If they don't ask you personally to use pirated software and they are good to you, respond in kind. If they ask you to use it, you decline and they throw you out, then you can approach them and ask for compensation for the complete period until you find another place. If they don't take seriously, then you can consider whether it is worth the trouble (say, you relocated to another town, rented an appartment and now you're out) or not (you just take one of the other job offers you hopefully had). In any case, the decision is yours.

Solution 3:

I was in that situation but decided against turning them in because I wasn't sure if I was making an unbiased decision.

Solution 4:

I would only tattle if they pushed first i.e. they forced me to use their pirated software or face disciplinary action. I personally don't have a problem with software piracy, it's a fact of life in the industry we work in. But for a company to force you to use software they obtained illegally in this day in age, when there are so many viable open source alternatives, is a little bit much.

If they just said, "here, use this illegally downloaded software if you'd like to," and let me use other software if I felt like it, I would just move on and forget about them.

Solution 5:

I've been faced with this sort of thing, and my solution has always been to go over my management's head asking an "innocent" question, to make sure it's known all the way to the top.

When asked to take part in a scheme to defraud a vendor, I emailed the company's lawyers asking whether they felt I could be held criminally responsible, and if so, whether they would pay for my defense.

Of course by doing this you're asking to be fired. In this case, it was a large enough company (publically traded with a multi-billion dollar market cap) and I had enough political capital built up that it caused them to correct their behavior and increase my bonus. But I was not counting on this.

If it's already known all the way to the top, you have to decide whether you consider it more unethical to pirate software or be a rat. In cases I've dealt with this sort of thing, I was just making sure that the policy was known to upper management. Also in the case where I emailed the company's lawyers, I was asked to be an active participant and had been complaining about the situation for a full year. I was not simply asked to look the other way.