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BSA to give up to $1 million in rewards for piracy snitches

2 July 2007 17:25 by Andre "DVDBack23" Yoskowitz | 16 comments

This morning, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) announced that you can be in for a hefty reward if you were to report a business or individual that is pirating or using pirated software for internal use.

The new ceiling, a special promotion until October, will be a cool $1,000,000 USD. Yes, you read that right, one million dollars. The new ceiling is an $800,000 USD premium from the current rewards ceiling.

The BSA hopes that the new, huge reward will make even the most timid employee into a snitch. "Businesses often have a million excuses for having unlicensed software on office computers. BSA is now offering up to a million dollars for employees who turn them in," said Jenny Blank, Director of Enforcement for the BSA.

The rewards paid out by the BSA is determined by the size of "the settlement paid by the company pirating software, or the size of awarded damages in the instance of a dispute heading into court." For example, if you want to qualify for the million dollar settlement, you will need a settlement of $15 million or higher.

The BSA also revealed however, that $22 million total has been generated from settlements with businesses accused of using pirated software since 2005, when the rewards program began. That clearly means that huge rewards have not been given out so far, but the BSA is certainly hoping more people will step forward now.

The BSA also once again cited that the software industry lost over $7 billion USD thanks to piracy last year but those numbers have been critcized for being based on questionable calculations.

Source:
Arstechnica

Permalink to this article

For the BSA, Somali pirates and software pirates are the same (14 April 2009)

Piracy has 'tragic' impact on US society, says BSA (22 July 2008)

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Discuss this article!
corey93 (Junior Member) 2 July 2007 17:29
wow if u snitch on someone for that rele need 2 get a life...its pathetic how bad its getting alll theese directors n stuff blaming piracy for their crappy movies like hostel 2 o well [ + quote]
lxfactor (Senior Member) 2 July 2007 17:48
now were gonna get a group of sell outs [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 2 July 2007 18:08
This has bribery all over it. I thought that was against the law :) [ + quote]
OzMick (Inactive) 2 July 2007 18:16
Meh, I'd squeal on my boss for $1m, just a pity everything is above board here... I could do a lot with that kind of money, and any company doing that sort of dodgy dealings with their software has it coming. Not that hard to get open source to do anything you need, its your own fault if you get caught using illegal software. [ + quote]
rainofire (Newbie) 2 July 2007 18:18
Don't most company bribe other companies to support their own exclusive stuff. Didn't MS bribe rockstar a few millions, so that GTA4 has more stuff? [ + quote]
ottesen07 (Member) 2 July 2007 19:05
LOL, i thought that BSA was Boy Scouts of America. I am an eagle scout btw [ + quote]
chubbyInc (Member) 2 July 2007 19:13
Keep in mind, You'll only get a reward if they can get money out of your company. Sounds like a win win situation for BSA, because they'll pay up to that amount....Doesn't mean they'll pay that amount or even close to it. [ + quote]
canuckerz (Senior Member) 2 July 2007 20:41
Looks like the BSA has a BSA (Bull S*** Award) [ + quote]
Unfocused (Member) 3 July 2007 0:30
So, what is to stop a user from swapping out a bunch of legit Windows keys for blacklisted keys and then calling it in? [ + quote]
duckNrun (Inactive) 3 July 2007 3:11
Hey I didn't see the 'report them here' link in this article.... maybe it was just an oversight on the editor's part. LOL ;-) [ + quote]
Buik (Member) 3 July 2007 17:13
Moves like this will only add incentive to migrate to "Open Source" products like Open Office. Total Cost of Ownership be damned. Open Office can be transitioned to very easily if you already know MS Office. Instead of trying to use pirated MS & Other big name products, go for the legal ones, that are free and don't carry the risks. Greater competition from those sources will cool the BSA's heels a little and maybe cause better product pricing from the major companies. [ + quote]
Steve83 (Member) 6 July 2007 16:17
So now, before I snitch on the company that has fed me & paid my mortgage for the past 15 years, I have to figure up how much I'll lose in stock options & future earnings, and then compare that to what I MIGHT get out of these BullShitArtists to decide whether or not it's worth ratting out my own job. [ + quote]
ZzeusS (Junior Member) 7 July 2007 6:32
Originally posted by Steve83: So now, before I snitch on the company that has fed me & paid my mortgage for the past 15 years, I have to figure up how much I'll lose in stock options & future earnings, and then compare that to what I MIGHT get out of these BullShitArtists to decide whether or not it's worth ratting out my own job. Sure, with a nice executive level job. 15 years ago when I was making peanuts for a low level company that treated me like crap - you bet your ass I would have hung them out to dry. Especially if I would have known about the BSA and the reward program. I probably would have done it for free. [ + quote]
kingjoker (Newbie) 7 July 2007 19:07
[quote]15 years ago when I was making peanuts for a low level company that treated me like crap - you bet your ass I would have hung them out to dry. Especially if I would have known about the BSA and the reward program. I probably would have done it for free. [quote]Lol i don't work but im in school so if i snitch on the teachers for pirating can i get early retirement. [ + quote]
madman91 (Junior Member) 7 July 2007 20:25
No one is going to snitch.. My reasoning.: the users who want to snitch, will have bad morals.. Bad moraled users, will obviously have also pirated programs.. they could also get caught... :. Thus, no one will tell on anyone. [ + quote]
ZzeusS (Junior Member) 8 July 2007 6:19
Well yes :) I would have to ask about any immunity clauses. [ + quote]