Ahoy There Me Hearties!

Several weeks ago, I logged into Twitter (@jodoan1) to learn that The Pirate Bay had been sold to a legal software manufacturing company.  For those unfamiliar with The Pirate Bay; they are a website dedicated to tracking torrents which facilitate the piracy or illegal sharing of software and movies.  Like Kazaa and Napster before them, The Pirate Bay has turned over a new leaf and appears to be going down the road of legal file sharing.

So if they can do it; what is stopping you?  I have admittedly violated an end-user licensing agreement or several in my lifetime.  It started when I made a copy of a friend’s Def Leppard tape which he dubbed from his brother’s friend.  The audio quality was about as good as an MP3 ripped at 10kbps for the younger crowd or a Heathkit AM radio for the more mature.  As a poor college student I may have borrowed a friend’s software installation disk to install on my hand-me-down computer.  Likewise, I have burned a few disks for friends and family.  I am remorseful of my poor judgment in the past and I have made it a point to live a pirate free life moving forward.

Is this blog a step in my twelve-step program to pirate recovery?  No.  Well, maybe.  The thought came to me as I was looking to purchase a photo editing program recently.  The software license cost is $300.  WOW!  What a penny to pay when I can find a license key on the Internet for free or have a family member, who is a teacher, purchase the software at the discounted education price of $99.  But why should I implicate loved ones in a crime?  Would you ask a family member to help you steal from the grocery store?  The problem is people see these crimes differently; when in reality, they are very much the same.  “Borrowing” software that is not properly licensed IS a crime and it costs consumers and manufacturers billions of dollars every year.

Besides the obvious ethical concerns around pirated software, videos, music, etc; there are many information security related risks as well.  Users who download media from peer-to-peer or bit torrent sites are more likely to become infected by viruses or other malicious software.  Additionally, the lack of support may outweigh the initial cost of the software if you incur any downtime.  Like any other crime, there is always the risk of being caught.  Those who are caught may find themselves owing tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and penalties.  It makes $300 seem like a real deal to me.

You live your life righteously and have never borrowed or copied software; but that doesn’t necessarily mean you aren’t violating copyright law.  How often do you audit your computer network for installed software?  Just because Joe in accounting purchased Quick Books at Staples doesn’t mean that you are properly licensed to have it installed on YOUR company asset.  Users may be downloading freeware tools and evaluation software on your behalf if you aren’t preventing them from doing so.  Ad-Aware offers a no cost consumer version of its software, but commercial installations must be licensed and paid for.

To end an otherwise lengthy debate on ethics and law; I will recommend a few things to keep yourself out of hot water.

1)      Properly license your and your company’s software if you are in a position to do so

2)      Audit your environment regularly to determine whether unauthorized software has been installed.  If the user has a legitimate reason for installing a particular application, see step 1.

3)      Think about your business or your employer’s business the next time you are tempted to borrow a copy of software or other copyrighted material

Finally, the software industry is evolving.  Competition has driven down the cost of many software applications.  There are many “open source” or free applications that are compatible with their expensive name brand counterparts.  Offerings like Open Office, Picasa and AVG are just a few examples of affordable applications that are available.