InformationWeek

Worker Bees Turned Whistleblowers

The Business Software Alliance is appealing to the snitch instinct in everyone in its war on software piracy.

The software industry organization has launched an advertising campaign in New York encouraging workers to rat out co-workers turned software pirates. The agency is spreading its "Worker Bee" advertising campaign using billboards, subways posters, radio spots (including a sponsorship of "The Howard Stern Show"), and direct mail. The ads show a bright yellow bee flying through cubicles, doing the honorable thing when it sees unlicensed software.

BSA has set up a toll-free hot line (1-888-No Piracy) and Web site (www.nopiracy.com) that will take anonymous reports. Once reports are filed, an investigation will be launched--it is hoped with the cooperation of businesses where the alleged piracy is taking place. If piracy is going on, the company will be asked to delete all the unlicensed software, replace it with legal products, then put a software-management program in place to prevent future incidences. By taking these measures, guilty companies avoid the legal ramifications of software piracy.

According to the BSA, the campaign should help net some pirates, if past experience is an indicator. Earlier efforts, such as the "Nail Your Boss" program that ran in Atlanta and Boston, generated heavy traffic volumes on both the toll-free hot line and the Web site.

According to the 1998 Global Software Piracy Report, released in May, more than one out of every three software applications worldwide were pirated in 1998, and worldwide losses to software piracy are estimated to be $11 billion.

Accused organizations are quick to cooperate, according to the BSA, because the penalties for harboring software pirates are harsh for both the corporation and individual managers and executives. A company that employs a software pirate can be fined up to $100,000 per work for copyright infringement, while the officers of the company are liable and can face up to five years in prison.

--Eileen Colkin