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It has been our experience over the last 17 years that this type of reward scheme encourages dis-gruntled employees or ex-employees to "get even" and cause significant disruption. In our view, reward schemes do not solve the problem at all and we have been convinced of that over the last 12 to 15 years (Australia has had rewards since mid 1990s). All we have seen is massive amounts of wasted money and effort and seen no real change in the piracy ‘statistics” (which we don’t place a lot of credence in) that crop up every year. Why mention this? Its one of the lower level governance items that can easily slip under the radar when it gets to the controls aspects as many tend to downplay or ignore the impact. The reality is, if your business is “suspected” of having software as a result of a “claim or report” (made under statutory declaration) by an employee or ex-employee, we can tell you that the impact is really very time consuming, disruptive and costly to defend. It could also cost you your job if you failed to adhere to the basic premises expected when running a business/IT system etc. In practice, most sites end up paying the pipers tune (around 5 to 6 figure sums) as they really have no idea what is installed on their systems due to lax controls and inefficient management practices, and in some cases sheer stupidity. It also drives people down the Open Source path as well. Whether Open Source is good or bad is not the debating point, the fact is it is very disruptive to be running a business house to be presented with these reward schemes and then see the knee jerk reactions that inevitably follow. The rule of thumb you can use (based on past experience from cases we have seen) is multiply the published fine by 3 to 4 times and you get the true cost of disruption, legal defense, staff costs, extra software licenses etc as the fine is only the external costs shown! Make sure your local management controls cover the manner in which you install, license, share and use software and the manner in which you audit and monitor activities of employees. Ignore the issue and the reward scheme will bite you! Many will now be tempted to claim the reward, so don’t underestimate the creative power of those who know how to “work the system”. Some “creative individuals work on the premise of “never get mad, wait for a time to get even”. $1M could be a good reason for some to “even up the score” against a boss who was doing the wrong thing, or even if they were just browned off with the organization!
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Whistleblowers could net up to $US 1m by reporting management for piracy (ooops I mean….. unlicensed software) within the workplace! (Raised from $US 200K to $1M until Oct 2007) http://www.bsa.org/usa/press/newsreleases/Million-Dollar-Reward.cfm “The program encourages individuals with detailed information about software piracy to come forward and confidentially submit the infringement(s).” “Reward payments are subject to eligibility requirements, the details of which are available on the BSA Web site at http://www.bsa.org/ “ $1M could be a good reason for some to “even up the score” against a boss who was doing the wrong thing, or even if they were just browned off with the organization! |
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| You can get a free Snapshot of the state of your desktop and notebook systems at http://www.pcprofile.com/SnapshotPCP_Demo.zip to see if you need to take drastic action before the effect of this latest campaign strikes. It’s only a question of time before the UK and the Australian arms of the BSA up the ante on their own reward schemes. Be cautious if you use the free Microsoft “audit” tool, as it does not present the total state of play on your systems see http://www.pcprofile.com/msia.htm |
| Australia doubles
reward to $AUD 10,000 in Oct 2006
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,20517427%5E15317%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html |
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| An Emerging Threat You May Not Have Counted On This news is relevant for security and audit and management professionals in USA and around the world. The Business Software Alliance (BSA) in USA announced in the last few days that it has increased its cash incentive (reward) to $US200,000 for information on software piracy that leads to an infringement settlement with software vendors. Of course there are conditions, but suffice to day many have already put their hands up to claim their cash prize! The previous USA reward which ended on 28th February 2006 was $US50,000 (which was the highest we have known in the last 15 years) and it generated over 1,000 “reports” which means there are 1,000 organizations “under investigation”. Will this reward scheme have any effect outside USA? It sure will, where organizations have a US parent and/or an offshore subsidiary or vice versa. It will also induce other countries anti-piracy bodies to offer rewards seeing the successes to date with reports flooding in. The “anti-piracy net” could well widen to your country due to the very size and nature of the reward scheme on offer. As auditors and managers and chief executives in organizations you really need to take notice of what is going on and make sure you are well protected! Get the facts on the reward scheme from BSA and PCProfile. If you want to know how they can knock on your door and seize your assets (Can they do this ? Sure can!) read this! If you want to know more about what this “reward system” can do to both you your organization send an e-mail to pcprofile@internode.on.net and we’ll give you an inside rundown on the risks you face. They are really very substantial now that the stakes have been raised to this level! Wait until the music and the movie industry catch on to this reward scheme and see what sort of fun you will have then. There are some very simple and pragmatic steps you can take to ease the pain being created by this reward system. (besides taking a headache tablet or 2 to calm your nerves).
Beware - the advertisement shown here ran successfully in Australia many years ago, where the reward scheme seemed to start and is still running for over 10 years, since the early 1990's! US , UK and other countries are now "on the offensive" with similar reward schemes, rising as high as $US 200,000 as shown below! |
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Lessons Learnt - Read the Fine Print
In a recent press release in USA regarding an organization being stung with a hefty fine for allegedly using unlicensed copies of software a few words were "slipped in" at the press release stating "And, for the first time in the United States, BSA is now offering rewards of up to $50,000 for qualifying reports in the United States received via its hotline or online reporting form before midnight (PST) on Tuesday, February 28, 2006." Don't believe us? See Don't Get Stung $US 110,000 for Software Piracy and North Carolina firms Settle $US 155,000 with Piracy watchdog
Many will have skipped over the above words after their eyes glazed over the initial paragraph, as this is such a common press release that it draws a yawn from most CEOs and IT gurus. Here we go again, the software piracy bandwagon is rolling around one more time!
BUT, there are some underlying threats in that simple sentence above regarding offering a reward of $US 50,000 that we need to bring to your attention. For a short lessons learnt session, stay awake and read on!
Late breaking news $US 375,000 coughed up by Medical firm! and Phoenix firms find that costs hit “Home” to the tune of $US 250,000
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