Blowing the Whistle

Many whistle-blowers say they're more than concerned about professional ethics than financial reward.

Contributing Writer, Computerworld |

Revenge isn't the chief motive of individuals who blow the whistle on software piracy. Neither is money -- fewer than half of the informants who report their employers for using pirated or unlicensed PC software ask about fiscal rewards.

Instead, nigh informants are similar Bob, who concluding twelvemonth reported his former company for using what his so-boss told him was "jacked software." He was galled past the breathy dishonesty. Some informants, especially those who are in IT, also express concern about their professional reputations.

(The names of informants are kept confidential, so Computerworld is only using commencement names.)

In 2008, the Business Software Alliance received more than 2,500 reports of illicit utilize of software past companies in the U.S. It settled 588 cases for a total of $9.v meg. The BSA also paid out $136,000 to 42 informants, with the average reward being about $3,000.

Clearly, the number of informants outstrips the rewards paid out. That'due south because most informants aren't interested in fiscal compensation, according to the BSA, which maintains a reward pool of up to $ane meg annually.

Rather, "almost informants experience they have professional credentials to protect," says Jennifer Bare, the BSA'southward senior director of legal affairs. "People who phone call our hot line are outraged by the situation."

For Bob, the outrage began when he went to update operating system and design software at the modest manufacturer where he worked. "The foreman told me you tin can't update it. He said information technology would freeze up and that the software wasn't registered," Bob recalls. "That was mind-boggling to me, because without that kind of software, they weren't in business concern."

Not long afterwards, both Bob and, later, his boss, left the company. Bob got jobs at other manufacturers and later nearly a yr decided to report his former employer.

"It stewed at me," peculiarly as he saw other companies paying their fair share for the software they used, Bob explains. "It was the level of dishonesty that triggered me [to contact the BSA]."

Chuck, a reckoner science teacher in Pennsylvania, wasn't looking for money or kudos when he contacted the BSA near his school commune. He was simply doing what's right, he says.

The district had purchased a single copy of Adobe software for apply past 1,500 students. Well enlightened of software copyright and licensing laws -- which he taught to students as role of the computer science curriculum -- Chuck met with schoolhouse administrators well-nigh the situation. He also discussed it with Information technology personnel lower downwardly in the hierarchy. The loftier-level administrators, Chuck says, told him that what they were doing was perfectly legal. But at the lower end, "the people said they were aware of the licensing effect but that was what they were told to do by upper administration," Chuck recalls.

At that point, Chuck purchased his ain re-create of the Adobe software, read the licensing agreement carefully, and and so contacted the BSA.

"It was actually not a driving strength to turn these guys in and cash in. It was more to go them back on runway and so everything we had was legally licensed," Chuck says.

"As somebody pedagogy students how to write figurer programs and most the ethics involved in that, it's disturbing to find out your district isn't following procedures," he explains. "What kind of example does that set? We're there to teach kids right from wrong along with the correct skill sets."

NEXT: Software piracy'south global economic touch debated

Julia King is a Computerworld contributing writer based in Pennsylvania.

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