Software Piracy At the Beijing Branch Office? 614
spirit_fingers writes "I'm the IT manager for a west coast design company that has a small branch office in Beijing with 5 employees, a few workstations and a couple of servers. Recently, it came to my attention that the Beijing office has been routinely installing and using pirated software on their computers — MS Office and Adobe Creative Suite, mostly. We're very buttoned up about being legal with our software here at the home office, and I consider it unprofessional and risky for our Beijing office to be engaging in this practice. When I called the local office manager on this, he shrugged and replied, 'Well, every other shop here does it.' So I was wondering if there are any IT manager Slashdotters here in the the US who may have experienced something similar with their colleagues in APAC, and how they handle a situation like this." Click the link for more of this reader's thoughts on the subject.
Up until now, the powers that be here in the States have had a relatively laissez faire attitude about what goes on at the Beijing office and our accounting department hadn't noticed that Beijing never submitted receipts for software, until I questioned them about it.
I have no doubt that "everyone else does it" in that environment. Frankly, I could care less what those guys do with their personal computers, but when it comes to company-owned gear my attitude is to stay legal no matter what anyone else is doing. And it's not like they need to do it to save money: the Beijing branch turns a tidy profit. It just seems to be an attitude so firmly ingrained in the culture over there that no one gives it a second thought.
My response (CC'd to our CFO) was to ask for copies of all receipts and serial numbers for the software they're using. and see what happens. This came down today, so I'll give them a day or two to come up with something.
Re:I'd go the other way, personally (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Let the directors decide. (Score:5, Funny)
First things first,
Make sure, that under no circumstances, that you post your situation to a popular internet site. That way you can be sure not to draw attention to your circumstances from the people who might investigate... ...oh wait one minute.
Make the decision yourself. (Score:2, Funny)
It would be a terrible idea to stall purchasing proper licenses any longer.
Get them their own, legit copies of the software they use immediately - so that I can use their CS4 key when it inevitably shows up on the internet next Tuesday. This is China after all. It'd be like buying a hobo a Ferrari and expecting him not to swap it for booze.
Re:why do you care? (Score:2, Funny)
These are not the licences you're looking for.
In soviet russia... (Score:2, Funny)
The software pirates YOU!
Re:I know who you are (Score:3, Funny)
Can't be that many of them... I reckon half an hour on Google and I can work out who you are...
I always assume that these "Ask Slashdot" topics are entirely fictional. Most seem to be crafted like a TV movie of the week to hit a bunch of hot buttons and provoke controversy.
I just wish they could be more like the letters in the "Penthouse Forum"... :)
Re:He's Right (Score:3, Funny)
Why shouldn't they use imported technologies however they see fit? It's not like they are stealing anything.
Re:He's Right (Score:4, Funny)
>>> It's not like they are stealing anything.
I love how you took slashdotters' favorite argument and turned it against them. There does seem to be a double standard here ("I can download all the music I want! Information should be feee!") ("No, no, pirating software is bad.").
Could ye at least try for some *consistency* in your views? I download stuff, and I freely admit that it's wrong. I'm a thief stealing from the corporate thieves who stole 1500 billion from the U.S. Treasury. I don't deny it.
Re:He's Right (Score:5, Funny)
>>>there has been plenty of infected factory fresh legal software
Like Windows XP. Everytime I have to reinstall XP, I'm faced with this annoying virus that gives me a "Something service has ended. Automatic shutdown in 1 minute."
Forget about it, Jake. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:He's Not Right (Score:2, Funny)
Pirating is more like buying from a different grocery store
How can it be anything like "buying" if you paid nothing.
or growing the food in your garden
The reason everyone doesn't grow food in their gardens, is because gardens take work, land, water, soil, and other investments. That is nothing like typing "adobe torrent" in google and you have your software in 10 minutes.
That way you deprive them of the sale, but they still have the groceries to sell to someone else
Why would anyone buy from that grocery store if they could go to the free groceries store down the street or go and pick groceries in their magic garden???
Easy answer (Score:1, Funny)
To paraphrase a common meme (although this one actually makes sense):
1) Beijing branch pirates software
2) Report violation to company, which does nothing
3) Report violation to spa.org
4) Collect up to $1 million reward
5) Profit!