With visions of the no-nonsense bank auditor with Jimmy Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life, I set out to learn about the Software Police. Who are these folks who monitor software licensing throughout the world of computers? And how do they know which firms to audit anyway?

What I found was both informative and ethically horrifying.

Recent studies estimate that one in four software programs used in the United States is pirated. In 1997, that added up to a whopping $2.3 billion revenue loss! Software pirating runs rampant world-wide, an estimated $11.8 billion revenue loss in 1997.

To battle software piracy, software developers formed alliances to influence public policy, educate software users, and to enforce the laws governing software piracy. Two well-known groups are the Business Software Alliance and the Software and Information Industry Association. Their members include companies such as Microsoft, Novell, Lotus, Adobe, Semantic, and Visio.

These trade associations can enter a firm, accompanied by federal marshals and local law enforcement officials, and search the premises of any suspected copyright infringer. Infringers (employees and firms) can be tried civilly and criminally, with penalties that include up to five years imprisonment and fines up to $250,000.

This is serious stuff. The software police mean business. Their actions recover millions of dollars annually in penalties and fines.

So, who does the software police call on?

The answer was horrifying!

Business Software Alliance (BSA) gets most of its leads from maintaining approximately 50 hotlines around the world. It’s the phone number for disgruntled employees to call to get even.

Sound incredible? What’s incredible is this: Last year BSA received 7,000 calls on their hotline. About half of the calls were from disgruntled employees, seeking revenge on their current or former employer.

I find it abhorring that a firm or association would encourage such behavior. And I find it abhorring that so many individuals would stoop to those depths for revenge.

Let’s face it. Illegal copies of software are primarily made and distributed by uninformed users and by software pirates who sell “too good to be true” copies of software.

Most unlicensed software found in firms are distributed by a small group of individuals, most of whom are uninformed or out of control. For most firms, these issues can be handled effectively internally when the appropriate management is informed of the problem. In my opinion, calling in the cops as the first step to correcting this problem is both irresponsible and unethical.

I still believe that most of us are honest individuals, moral and upright citizens. Most firms are honest and upright. They value software as an important asset of their firm and are concerned and conscientious about proper software management.

So I am horrified to think that an association exists who promotes such sleazy behavior as “getting even”. I think it reflects poorly on the association and its members.

I am very much in favor of software companies banding together to promote public policy and to educate users about software licensing issues. By informing our legislators, sound policies can be established. By educating users, proper software management and usage procedures can be implemented and followed. Educated consumers can make informed choices when offered software that is “too good to be true”, software that is really pirated software.

For me, the integrity of the software police loses something when it preys on mostly honest companies. Education of the issues of software piracy, in my opinion, is a more effective weapon against lost revenues for software companies. It’s an ethical solution to a problem of ethics.