12 Companies Caught Stealing Software in 2007

buzzardsbay writes "Already forgotten Major League Baseball's Mitchell Report? Here's another kind of 'cheaters' list that folks will want to avoid. Baseline Magazine has compiled the top 12 companies fined by the Business Software Alliance last year for not playing by the rules of asset management. According to the report, many of the BSA's busts are made possible through a BSA Reward Program, which offers up to $1 million to individuals who report offending companies."

here's another list

[yagu (721525)]

Here's another list you may wish to avoid: (FTA)

individuals who report offending companies

(who may have received up to $1M for their information).

slightly misleading title

[techpawn (969834)]

12 Companies Caught Stealing Software in 2007? It's the TOP 12 fined... I'm pretty sure more than 12 companies stole...

The title isn't misleading.

[Coopjust (872796)]

You're kidding, right? It says "12 Companies CAUGHT Stealing Software in 2007.

Title is akward then

[techpawn (969834)]

You're kidding, right?

No, it reads as though only 12 companies where caught in the whole of 2007. I'm sure more than 12 companies where caught stealing, but these are just top 12.

Reward Money not that Great

[ironwill96 (736883)]

The "up to $1 million" that they always talk about is such a misleading advertisement. The BSA bases the amount of reward money based on the amount of fine that they level against the offending company. Don't think for one second that the BSA is going to give you $1 million for reporting a mom and pop corporation that has 10 copies of Windows XP stolen and faces a fine of $10,000 or so. The $1 million reward is only for cases where the fine levelled (and collected) is in excess of $15 million dollars! The BSA also reserves the right to not pay you anything if they don't feel like it.

Just some thoughts for any greedy ex-IT people on Slashdot..selling your soul may not be worth as much as it first appears!

Re:Reward Money not that Great

[cliffski (65094)]

Amazingly, as a software developer, I don't consider it to be 'selling your soul' to report a business that gives itself an unfair advantage over the competition by using software they refuse to pay for. I consider it levelling the playing field.
There is free software out there if you are on a budget. I didn't realise there was a secret code amongst IT guys to encourage your employer to just steal Microsoft office instead.

Re:

[ironwill96 (736883)]

I did not mean to imply that I condone software piracy, I really don't. I too am a software developer but have also worn the IT guy hat on many occasions. The issue is that some of these people reporting the "violating" companies were in fact the ones who helped or suggested pirating the software in the first place. It is that which I find detestable. Yes, the BSA claims that a stipulation for compensation is that you were not involved in the piracy in the first place, but that is often extremely hard t

Re:Reward Money not that Great

[jacquesm (154384)]

Amazingly, as a software developer I don't see any reason to further help billyboys empire along any further than they already are.

Also I have a bad feeling about ratting out people, if gates-et-al want to make more money licensing they'll either have to lower their prices or increase the quality of their anti piracy measures. These right now have the amazing side effect of locking out legitimate customers which costs those legitimate customers probably a multiple of what the BSA rakes in annually.

I can see your point, if you live from developing software it makes sense in principle but I feel that software licenses have had their longest time in the sun, and the sooner licensed software for basic functionality dies off the better.

There will always be a market for quality software sold under license by professionals willing to maintain that software past the point of sale but the windows-word-excel-powerpoint lemon has been squeezed enough I think. It's just customer lock-in and more or less forced upgrades that are driving that now, nothing to do with real software development.

Re:Reward Money not that Great

[ludomancer (921940)]

I completely agree. To me, piracy stops when you leave college, or alternatively, when you are in the position to make a profit by using it. It's great for learning all the available options on the market, and educating yourself with each one, but once you're working at a company who is going to use it to support their business, they need to shell out the cash to support the OTHER guys business. It should be a no brainer. I'd estimate the majority of revenue companies make on software sales come from corporations in the first place. So when companies start stealing from companies, they've undermined the stability of the whole system.

Re:Reward Money not that Great

[Todd Knarr (15451)]

Possibly, but remember that by the BSA's rules it's irrelevant whether you've paid for the software or not. If you got Microsoft Windows XP included on a computer from Dell, have the COA for the installed copy of XP, have an invoice for the computer but don't have a line item on the invoice for Windows XP, you're a pirate and may get included on this list. Ditto for Adobe. Notice how the same software companies show up on the list of "pirated" software, and the majority of them are companies whose software is included bundled with computers from major makers. How many of those settlements are for real piracy, and how many are just for missing records for bundled software that the BSA knows full well was paid for when the computer was bought but it'll cost the company more to prove it than the BSA is asking in settlement?

Re:

[Trogre (513942)]

To ride the /. meme wave:

Who's stealing anything? Is MS being deprived of the ability to run Microsoft Office when Joes Super-Cheap Widgets uses their software without paying for it? I think the term you're looking for is 'infringement'.

I know, I know, I'll go sit down.

Stealing?

[by Anonymous Coward]

You forget that this is the BSA we're talking about. Their idea of "stealing" is that you don't still have your purchase orders for EVERY last computer. You thought that sticker on the machine was any good? Forget it. If you lack a PO, you're not licensed to them. Then they use the "force people to settle or you pay even more" tactic so these things rarely go to court.

But you don't believe me, right? Here's the story of someone who has been through the BSA ringer [ernietheattorney.net].

Oh well, at least he learned his lesso

Re:

[plopez (54068)]

Spite and revenge is reward enough for most of us. ;)

This is fantastic news....

[zappepcs (820751)]

said sarcastically of course, but the next time someone asks me why I think they should just go with the F/OSS alternative to Windows, I'm going to hand them this list..... It basically offsets the cost of learning new programs UIs.

Say what you want about Linux fanbois, but they do have this one point going for them.

Isn't that bad logic?

[Petersko (564140)]

"said sarcastically of course, but the next time someone asks me why I think they should just go with the F/OSS alternative to Windows, I'm going to hand them this list..... It basically offsets the cost of learning new programs UIs"

Using the list of pirates and their fines as justification for F/OSS is bad logic. If companies just buy the software they intend to use, they don't have to worry about huge fines.

Car analogy inbound

[zappepcs (820751)]

Hmmmm you just don't get it, do you?

Lets see: you can drive this Chevrolet if you pay a licensing fee - OR - you can drive this Ford for free (donations welcome).

If you get caught driving the Chevy without the license, it will cost you way more than the license fee.

OR - you can simply choose to not worry about the fees and fines by driving the Ford?

Then again, never mind, you probably are not going to get the point anyway.

It has nothing to do with "not getting it"

[Petersko (564140)]

"Hmmmm you just don't get it, do you?" I do. Apparently you don't.

"but the next time someone asks me why I think they should just go with the F/OSS alternative to Windows, I'm going to hand them this list....."

Now if you had said, "Next time someone asks me why they shouldn't just use pirated commercial software, I'm going to hand them this list", then I would agree with you. The list is irrelevant for people who have paid for their software.

I'm not contesting your second post. It just has nothin

Re:

[berzerke (319205)]

If you get caught driving the Chevy without the license, it will cost you way more than the license fee.

As another has already pointed out, it should be: "If you get caught driving the Chevy without the license or can't find the proper proof you paid for the license...". Remember kiddies, original boxes, certificates of authenticity, and stickers are not proper proof.

Re:

[Just Some Guy (3352)]

If companies just buy the software they intend to use, they don't have to worry about huge fines.

That's so completely untrue. It's not enough to show that you have the software. You must also be able to prove that you bought the software by keeping every receipt and invoice from every vendor. In many companies, this is the full-time responsibility of one or more employees. Use Windows? $50K a year just to have someone to prove you're allowed to. Fun, huh?

Re:

[Petersko (564140)]

"That's so completely untrue. It's not enough to show that you have the software. You must also be able to prove that you bought the software by keeping every receipt and invoice from every vendor. In many companies, this is the full-time responsibility of one or more employees. Use Windows? $50K a year just to have someone to prove you're allowed to. Fun, huh?"

Any company sufficiently large enough to need somebody to keep track of their software licencing should already be keeping every receipt and inv

Re:

[Just Some Guy (3352)]

It's not a full time responsibility of somebody - it's one part of the job of a general asset coordinator. If it's done properly from the start, it takes very little time.

Actually, zero time for companies that get tired of screwing around with compliance management and upgrade to FOSS.

Re:

[Stradivarius (7490)]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but why in the world would a company need to keep receipts/invoices for capital equipment it bought many years ago? I can see keeping it during the fiscal year maybe for accounting purposes, but afterwards it seems like a lot of paper to keep track of for no purpose I can discern, other than defending against a BSA audit in which you are presumed guilty unless you can prove your innocence.

And for many small businesses, there may not be a position of "general asset coordina

BSA are MS representive

[zukinux (1094199)]

MS actually donates BSA nice % of their money they use to look for the stealing companies.
I'm not saying it's right to steal software, but what I'm saying is, if one day, BSA agent is knocking at your door, DO NOT LET THEM IN without any court order. They have no right to check for your licenses without any court orders. keep that in mind.

Re:BSA are MS representive

[HeavensBlade23 (946140)]

You don't know how those guys operate, do you? If you don't let them in they come back the next day with federal marshalls in tow.

Re:BSA are MS representive

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF (813746)]

MS actually donates BSA nice % of their money they use to look for the stealing companies.

This is Slashdot for crying out loud. Can't people get it right by now? It is "copyright infringement" not "stealing." They are two separate laws in two separate categories of law based upon completely different concepts of government. Stealing deprives a person of something real and violates their natural rights. Copyright infringement possibly deprives someone of "potential" revenue and violates a government granted privilege, designed for a specific purpose... motivating the creation and dissemination to the people of useful works.

I'm not saying it's right to steal software, but what I'm saying is, if one day, BSA agent is knocking at your door, DO NOT LET THEM IN without any court order. They have no right to check for your licenses without any court orders. keep that in mind.

There's that word again. The problem is, they can usually get a court order if they have probable cause, including a report from a current or former employee or the results of running their "free" license checking software they give people to "ensure your licenses are in order." In many businesses (especially very large or very small ones) simply tracking the licensing is a difficult task, especially if your employees have any level of autonomy. Employees buy software on their own or install things from home. No, restrictive security policies won't stop this completely because the people a the top do it and can override IT and because people in IT themselves do it.

Realistically, in small businesses where it is too costly to have IT manage everything, you're better off treating your employees well so they are not motivated to cause you pain. In large enterprises, using professional license tracking software and employee agreement that takes responsibility for anything installed and pervasive use of site licenses or open source licensed software is the way to go.

Re: Getting "Theft" Right

[TaoPhoenix (980487)]

From the People's Law Dictionary by Gerald and Kathleen Hill:

theft
n. the generic term for all crimes in which a person intentionally and fraudulently takes personal property of another without permission or consent and with the intent to convert it to the taker's use (including potential sale).

RIAA's music (under contract from artist.) Person downloads without permission with intent to convert to downloader's use.

take
v. to gain or obtain possession. This includes downloading copies.

Copying vs. obtaining an

Re:

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF (813746)]

take v. to gain or obtain possession. This includes downloading copies.

Don't you think it is more than a little deceptive to include the second sentence, which is your own personal comment, on the same line? How do you figure making a copy of something is "taking" it. If I go to the museum and copy a photograph with my camera, do they arrest me on the way out for "stealing" a priceless painting? Gee, not they don't. Someone might say I've "taken" a photograph, but no one would tell the police or employees that I've "taken" the painting. They are separate laws with separate n

Burlington Coat Factory

[rangek (16645)]

I thought they went to Linux....

http://www.novell.com/success/burlington.html [novell.com]

I guess maybe they should have gone all the way, so to speak...

Re:

[SQLGuru (980662)]

Maybe after they got this fine they said "screw this" and finished making the switch.....that article doesn't have a date on it, so I can't tell when they made the switch.

Layne

stupid advertising

[farker haiku (883529)]

Not to be a karma whore or anything, but if these pages bothered you like they did me, here's the info you wanted:

Company: Chef Works, Inc.
Headquarters: San Diego, Calif.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Adobe, Microsoft and Symantec
Settlement Paid: $102,000

Company: Roger's Gardens
Headquarters: Corona Del Mar, Calif.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Adobe, Microsoft and Symantec
Settlement Paid: $73,368

Company: Datatec Systems, Inc.
Headquarters: Alpharetta, Ga.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Adobe, Autodesk, Borland, McAfee, Microsoft and Symantec
Settlement Paid: $69,000

Company: RAIR Technologies, Inc.
Headquarters: Brookfield, Wis.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Microsoft
Settlement Paid: $150,000

Company: J&B Importers, Inc.
Headquarters: Miami, Fla.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Adobe, Microsoft, and Symantec
Settlement Paid: $100,000

Company: Media Lab Ventures, LLC
Headquarters: Tampa, Fla.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Adobe, Autodesk, and Microsoft
Settlement Paid: $125,000

Company: AccentCare, Inc.
Headquarters: Irvine, Calif.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Adobe and Microsoft
Settlement Paid: $240,400

Company: Investors Management Trust Real Estate Group, Inc.
Headquarters: Sherman Oaks, Calif.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Adobe, Microsoft and Symantec
Settlement Paid: $235,000

Company: Global Microwave Systems, Inc.
Headquarters: Carlsbad, Calif.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Adobe, Autodesk, Microsoft and Symantec
Settlement Paid: $231,500

Company: The Waggoners Trucking
Headquarters: Billings, Mont.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Adobe, Microsoft and Symantec
Settlement Paid: $300,000

Company: Burlington Coat Factory
Headquarters: Burlington, N.J.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Microsoft and McAfee
Settlement Paid: $300,000

Company: Payless ShoeSource, Inc.
Headquarters: Topeka, Kan.
Type of Unlicensed Software: Adobe, Autodesk, Borland, Internet Security Systems, McAfee and Symantec
Settlement Paid: $124,057

Many of the BSA's enforcement actions are made possible through the BSA Reward Program, which offers anywhere between $5,000 to $1 million to individuals who report offending companies.

Re:

[hansamurai (907719)]

Thank you so much for this, I got sick of clicking next after the first page. I'm really sick of Slashdot linking to all these hundred page articles with one sentence of each information on each page. Makes me want to RTFA even less.

Re:

[ddrichardson (869910)]

This is beginning to piss me off as well - this is the second article I've looked at today where I've lost the will to finish because of the way it's laid out.

It's almost as irritating as those posts that link to a blog entry that links to the actual article.

Re:

[randyest (589159)]

Thirding this; that "10 worst keyboards" article was as bad as this. One sentence per page, 10+ pages, and no "print" link to see it all at once. I refuse to tolerate such nonsense, even though I do have adblock so none of the pages have any ads at all....just a waste of time.

Re:

[Gromius (677157)]

Thanks for that. And its not karma whoring as this actually required some work and was usefull :)

Seeing the last one now (I couldnt be bothered to keep clicking) leads me to believe that they must have been a victim of the BSA's somewhat onerous required level of proof. I doubt they were intentionally infringing and I bet that in most cases either a) they had paid for it but lost the invoice (but probably had other proof which isnt accepted) b) the software hadnt been properly deleted from a machine but

Re:

[vux984 (928602)]

Like, every one company on the list seems to be pirating MS products (Office, Windows) and Adobe products (probably Photoshop and Dreamweaver).

Dreamweaver? More likely Acrobat and Photoshop, neither of which are probably even needed. They usually just need some way to edit images and create pdf files. Basic PDF creation is free if you know where to look, and photoshop is monster overkill for the basic cropping/resizing, blurring a license plate, and redeye reduction that is all many of these companies use i

Burlington

[WindBourne (631190)]

That one is interesting. It moved to Linux years ago. I am guessing that they aquired a new CTO who loves MS and has now cost the company not just the fine, but all the time and money on lawyers and new enforcement. The company should think about going back to Linux.

Re:

[LWATCDR (28044)]

They probably have a few desktops that run Windows still. So maybe some copies of Office and some copies of McAffee that didn't have all the paperwork for them.
Should just go and show that you should have gone all FOSS.

Microsoft, Adobe, and Symantec

[RobBebop (947356)]

Most of the copyright infringement is for Microsoft, Adobe, and Symantec. Some is for AutoDesk. Less for Borland.

Honestly... besides AutoDesk... none of those companies is even worth infringing upon from.

When will cheap-bastards learn that there are comparable FREE alternatives? Maybe the $100k fines aren't enough. They should try harder to ruin businesses who insist on infringing. Not to be all bad though, they should also offer F/OSS conversion consultants in exchange for the infringement fines (and as a bargaining chip to lessen the fines).

Re:

[blahplusplus (757119)]

"When will cheap-bastards learn that there are comparable FREE alternatives?"

When free alternatives have GOOD ADVERTISING... I wish people would stop making ridiculous comments, people as kids n the warez scene (or not so in the warez scene) grew up on adobe, symantec, etc. It's the same reason why people buy the same product/food over and over again, they're used to it and they know they are getting, plus advertisement commercial products get vs joe programmer who released on some niche website for tech n

And in other news...

[ExE122 (954104)]

A list of 12 Slashdot Users Caught Whoring Karma in 2007

CowboyNeal [slashdot.org]
eldavojohn [slashdot.org]
prostoalex [slashdot.org]
rpiquepa [slashdot.org]
theodp [slashdot.org]
antdude [slashdot.org]
securitas [slashdot.org]
freebsddude [slashdot.org]
Eugenia Loli [slashdot.org]
Makarand [slashdot.org]
coondoggie [slashdot.org]
ExE122 [slashdot.org]

Re:

[empaler (130732)]

TripmasterMonkey
ILuvRamen

Re:

[antdude (79039)]

Damn, you got me. :)

Re:

[Cervantes (612861)]

You forgot CleverNickName.
That karma-whoring bastard.
As soon as I get home I'm starting up a group against him. He's always spitting out +5 posts. I don't even know why everyone loves him or drools over everything he writes.

I think I'll give it some cool, original name, too. I'm leaning towards alt.CleverNickName.die.die.die

Fines?

[sinij (911942)]

Top fine is $300,000 and it is corporate, not to individuals... peanuts when you compare what *AA sues private citizens for simply shifting formats.

Read the Ernie Ball story

[symbolset (646467)]

It is here. [news.com]

I see a pattern

[by Anonymous Coward]

Maybe they should call it "Top 12 Companies Caught Stealing From Adobe, Microsoft and Symantec in 2007. And Occasionally Autodesk and Borland."

I'm sure the (Big) Business Software Alliance is going to do a report on all the independent software publishers they have done work for any day now.

What a letdown

[Just Some Guy (3352)]

From the title, I thought it was going to be an exciting tale about a bunch of companies that robbed a warehouse full of software. Such a disappointment to find that it didn't involve stealing at all, but just some boring copyright violation.

5 steps to make a profit, BSA style...

[pelrun (25021)]

1. Become disgruntled IT manager at large company
2. Install pirated software across the enterprise
3. Quit
4. Call BSA
5. Profit!!

What About The BSA Members?

[GaryPatterson (852699)]

Let's write our own list with stories about the BSA members.

Like... remember when Microsoft ripped off code from Apple's QuickTime and ended up paying $150M to Apple? Or when they pirated that disk compression software and ended up paying... well, probably lots of money... to... that company?

Okay, clearly my memory isn't perfect here, but who's got a good story about Adobe, Apple, Microsoft or someone else ripping off another company, infringing copyright or otherwise acting illegally?

After all, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Let's expose them all!

"I thought I saw that software before"

[peter303 (12292)]

I say that whenever I hear MicroSoft announce a new product.