A Pitch to Snitch
Psst. Wanna get back at your boss?
Microsoft and other top software firms are encouraging disgruntled workers to take revenge by snitching on employers who illegally copy computer software.
And some employees are taking them up on it.
Acting on calls to a toll-free hotline, software police recently snared several prominent businesses--even two software companies--for alleged copyright violations.
One company, Budget Rent a Car, recently paid $405,000, the largest U.S. piracy penalty yet, to settle claims of copyright infringement. Even the Los Angeles Unified School District last month agreed to fork over $300,000 to fend off a legal attack.
The recent enforcement actions came out of an advertising campaign by the Washington-based Business Software Alliance--a group that includes Microsoft, Adobe and Lotus Development--to get disgruntled workers to blow the whistle on their bosses.
Advertisements in airports, computer magazines and ballparks urge workers to “Nail Your Boss.”
The campaign now generates about 200 tips a month, mainly from disgruntled employees, said Bob Kruger, BSA’s vice president of enforcement.
The group’s aggressive advertisements have raised some eyebrows from workplace experts who say that in an era of declining company loyalty, they exacerbate ill sentiments by pitting workers against their bosses.
Nancy Kurland, who teaches business ethics at USC’s Marshall School of Management, said she doesn’t favor the idea of asking workers to turn in their bosses.
“Workers should be encouraged to resolve the matter internally before going to the software police,” Kurland said.
But BSA officials say their motives are clear: to catch companies that violate copyright laws.
“We don’t have an interest in stirring up acrimony in the workplace,” Kruger said. “Unfortunately, companies don’t call us to report that they’re pirating software. We depend on the kindness of strangers.”
According to one critic, the BSA acts as the “repo man of the software industry.” The Washington-based trade group was formed 10 years ago by Microsoft and other software producers to ensure that computer users buy their own software programs and not rely on copying their friends’.
During the last five years, BSA’s enforcers have wrestled about $30 million from private companies and public agencies, including the financially strapped Los Angeles school district. All the recovered money is plowed back into enforcement action and ad campaigns, the group says.
A BSA assault on a violator almost always follows the same pattern: After investigating a tip, the group asks the offending company to destroy its pirated software, agree to pay fines and purchase licenses from software producers.
No company or agency has ever contested the trade group’s action, Kruger said.
After securing a settlement, BSA officials issue a news release, saying the offending entity was cooperative in the investigation. In other words, software pirates, take heed.
Kruger defended the group’s efforts to cultivate workplace snitches, saying they are needed to stamp out international software piracy.
“Just because some employees are disgruntled doesn’t mean that they lack good information,” he said.
A study jointly released last month by BSA and another industry group, the Software Publisher’s Alliance, said the U.S. software industry lost $11.4 billion in revenue worldwide last year due to illegal copying of programs such as Microsoft’s Excel and Adobe’s Illustrator.
In the United States, 27% of software was pirated, resulting in an estimated $2.8 billion in lost revenue, the study found.
Many companies purchase expensive licensing arrangements to run copies of the same software, but some firms simply download software from the Internet or make copies indiscriminately.
Tipsters who call BSA’s hotline range from temporary employees to senior executives, Kruger said. One tipster was the former president of the firm he snitched on, Kruger said, adding, “It must have been some acrimonious parting of the ways.”
In its latest issue, the California Employer Advisor, a newsletter headquartered in Tiburon, warned companies to avoid being turned in by disgruntled workers.
“Most of our readers are interested in compliance,” said Larry Shapiro, the newsletter’s publisher. “Verifying they have licenses for their software is one way to avoid unpleasant surprises.”
Some workplace ethicists said they dislike the BSA’s tactic because it creates strife in the workplace.
Many people don’t regard copying software or intellectual property as a major violation, said Arvind Bhambri, who also teaches business ethics at USC. “It’s a widely accepted and condoned practice. They don’t think that they’re stealing something tangible, like a book.”
Bhambri said he probably would not call the BSA if his employer violated copyright laws.
“I would feel obliged to change the practice internally, not obliged to go to the police,” he said. “Given how extensive the practice is, I would probably leave the [company] rather than file a complaint.”
William Cockrum, who teaches a popular ethics class at UCLA’s Anderson School, agreed.
“If I were in that circumstance I would encourage the employer to pay for the software,” Cockrum said. “If he doesn’t, then I would have to decide if that is the right culture for me to continue to work in.”
Would you snitch on your boss for illegally copying computer software? Participate in an informal survey on The Times’ Web site. Go to: https://www.latimes.com/snitch.
