Report Pirated Software

We have redirected you to an equivalent page on your local site where you can see local pricing and promotions and purchase online. Stay on our U.S. Well, it looks like software piracy may pay after all! Only this time, it pays (up to $50,000!) for those who help address the issue by reporting it either via the Business Software Alliance hotline (1-888-NO PIRACY) or online reporting form before midnight (PST) on Tuesday, February 28, 2006.

Well, it looks like software piracy may pay after all! Only this time, it pays (up to $50,000!) for those who help address the issue by reporting it either via the Business Software Alliance hotline (1-888-NO PIRACY) or online reporting form before midnight (PST) on Tuesday, February 28, 2006.. That’s right, you can receive up to $50,000 for providing qualified lead reports to the Business Software Alliance to help identify and address illegal software. Why is this up to $50,000 offer being made? Simple, according to Jenny Blank, director of enforcement for BSA. “BSA hopes that its rewards program will provide people with the encouragement they need to do the right thing and report software piracy in their current or former workplace confidentially.”

Can BSA have an impact? Online, you can see six different companies the BSA has announced fines totaling $932,500 against since last week alone! This new $50,000 offer is designed to help provide even more leads for the BSA to follow-up on than they already have so they can have an even larger impact to help protect legal software users and resellers from the problem illegal software presents.

So, if your company is running illegal or mis-licensed software, or if you are selling or distributing illegal or mis-licensed software, realize that you now have bounty sticker worth up to $50,000 placed on your back and you are one phone call or email from someone around you collecting on that bounty. And if that happens, you can become a test case for the theory that all press is good press, just like the six companies listed on the BSA site this past week as part of the just under $1 MILLION DOLLARS in fines levied during this time.

How To Report Pirated Software To Microsoft

Report

If you know of someone running illegal or mis-licensed software (yes, this includes not having enough licenses, or maybe they are running Office Student & Teacher Edition in a business, etc.) and you want to get your shot at a reward of up to $50,000, submit your report to the BSA directly either:


– By phone: 1-888-NO-PIRACY
– Online submission form: https://reporting.bsa.org/usa/

If you know of someone selling or distributing illegal or counterfeit software and you want to get your shot at a reward of up to $50,000, submit your report to the BSA directly either:


– By phone: 1-888-NO-PIRACY
– Online submission form: https://reporting.bsa.org/usa/

If you are running illegal or mis-licensed software in your company or are not quite sure if you are or not, the BSA does provide some resources and tools on their site for you to use to help determine this: http://www.bsa.org/usa/antipiracy/Tools-Resources.cfm. You can also utilize several of the items Microsoft makes available on our piracy site: http://www.microsoft.com/piracy. Partners, be sure to also check out the Software Asset Management Partner Training site for Software Asset Management information and tools.

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman
Microsoft US Senior Manager
Small Business Community Engagement
This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights

Microsoft is known for pursuing anyone that pirates its software. It doesn't matter what country the counterfeiters are in, the tech giant will go after them.

In this quest, the company announced Tuesday that it settled 3,265 software piracy cases worldwide in the past year. Thirty-five of these cases were in the U.S., in 19 different states; and, 3,230 were international cases that took place in 42 different countries.

'Software counterfeiting negatively impacts local and global economic growth, stifles innovation, and puts consumers and businesses at risk,' Microsoft Cybercrime Center associate general counsel David Finn said in a statement.

Report Software Piracy

Microsoft said that the majority of its piracy cases got started because of tips from its customers. Typically, people report counterfeit software to Microsoft after they find malware and viruses on the items they bought or if the software didn't work correctly. According to Microsoft, 450,000 customers have reported pirated software to the company since 2005.

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Report Pirated Software To Microsoft

One of the cases settled was with the Ningbo Beyond Group in China. According to Microsoft, the company allegedly infringed on Windows, Office, Server, and Visual Studio software.

In March, Microsoft commissioned a study into the world of pirated software. The study found that 33 percent of the software on the market is counterfeit. The investigation claims that piracy and counterfeit software runs rampant through the digital universe and that many users might not even be aware that their software is fake.

Software

Besides going after pirates with lawsuits, Microsoft also uses other means to try to stop counterfeiters. It files more URL takedown requests to Google than any other company in the world -- claiming that these sites deal in copyrighted or pirated material. Between July 2011 and May 2012, Microsoft asked Google to remove a total of 2,544,209 URLs.

Report Software Piracy Reward

(Via The Next Web).