If you’re in a moral dilemma, or don’t know if you should report piracy, you now have some added incentive. Besides clearing your conscience, NoPiracy.org is now providing straight up cash for piracy reports. With three options on their main page, it looks as if they are going after software pirates (as opposed to music sharers, etc).
What You Can Report
- An organization or business that is using or installing more software than it has licenses for.
- A physical distributor who markets or sells unlicensed software.
- Someone who sells/distributes unlicensed copies of software via the Internet.
How to Report a Company or Person
Unfortunately, it can actually be quite difficult to report. While not every piece of information is required, it seems that a lot of details are needed to actually take action. Their report function asks for information such as…
- Number of employees
- CEO’s name
- A phone number for the company
- How many licenses the company has for the software
- How many versions of the software the company has actually installed
- Your opinion on why it’s piracy
Ultimately, it looks like you really need to be convinced in order for your report to be detailed enough to matter.
What does this mean for piracy?
For a long time now many pirates have said “piracy helps musicians” and other similar phrases. The same cannot be said for software. Software can take many months to actually create, plus a lot of time for project planning and mass distribution. Furthermore, each client may require additional support. All of this costs money for the software developer.
We think that NoPiracy.org, an initiative of BSA, is doing a great thing for the world. Getting rid of software piracy at a corporate level is a noble act, and important. With society relying on technology so much, stealing software is like going into a grocery store and stealing a bunch of food and drinks.
Just one more thing!
Like any sort of “bribe” or payment scheme, many people will feel obliged to lie in order to get a quick payout. This system is not something that can be easily manipulated. Your reports can have huge implications for companies and individuals. Lying about corporate piracy may result in consequences, so I highly encourage readers to not abuse this system.
However, if you’ve seen your company stealing software you may want to take advantage of the offer. While doing the right thing, you’ll be paid and assure that the entire investigation is handled properly.
