eWEEK Readers Accused Of ‘Collusion’ With Software Theft

eWEEK readers have been accused of colluding with corporate piracy, after a poll revealed a high proportion would turn a blind eye to unlicensed software in the workplace.

More than half of our readers would attempt to get the company legal, dealing with the matter internally by telling the company to buy licenses or find a free alternative, according to a poll on eWEEK Europe UK. But anti-theft campaigner FAST has criticised the fact that around a third of readers would apparently turn a blind eye (or worse), while only six percent would go to the authorities.

Dealing with it internally

Following reports over the last month that the UK could be missing out on £5.4 billion in new economic activity by 2013 due to software piracy – and BSA’s labeling of Birmingham as “an illegal software hotspot” – we decided to put our readers to the test, and find out your attitude to software piracy. We asked. “What would you do if you were given unlicensed software in the workplace?”

More than half of the 174 people who responded, said they would persuade their company to get legal – with a strong preference for taking an open source route. Amongst the 56 percent who said they would take it up with the company, 36 percent said that they would advise their company to look for a free software alternative, while 20 percent said they would advise the company to pay the licence fees for the software it was using.

The strong support for free software suggests that many readers wish to legally avoid licence fees. Users of free or open source software generally pay a subscription for support, and the software is copied and distributed freely, which advocates say encourages a better engagement with the production and use of software, and an improvement over old-style licensing models.

Though open source beat proprietary by a strong margin amongst readers who want to get their company legal, we’d have to observe that open source users are generally more enthusiastic about their choices and more likely to engage in a poll like this one.

Colluding in piracy

Readers who would let their company stay illegal caused more concern. A massive 22 percent said you would ask for a copy of the pirated software in this situation, and a further five percent would blackmail the company – you unscrupulous rotters – while nine percent said you would just keep quiet about the whole thing.

What really stands out though is that, even though we gave you three ways in which to report the incident officially, only 6 percent of you would go down this route.

“These results are a real eye-opener and demonstrate the very real threat company directors face from poor software asset management,” said John Lovelock, chief executive of the Federation Against Software Theft, commenting on eWEEK’s poll. “Not only that but it would appear that there is a large group of UK workers more than happy to collude with illegal activity.

“How can it be that in the modern office only 1.7 percent of workers would report illegal software use to the police,” Lovelock (left) added. “This all points to an atmosphere of silence at best or collusion on a grand scale at worst.”

FAST has advocated cost-efficient licence compliance and the use of best practice with regard to software asset management for many years, through education and enforcement campaigns. However, as Lovelock points out, these figures illustrate that there is still work to be done.

“People know when they are behaving in an illegal manner – these figures highlight that spectacularly,” he said. “So my message to business leaders and company owners is: do not keep your head in the sand, keep a tight handle on your software estate and regularly conduct audits to eliminate the internal threat that could be posed by your own workforce.”

Which tablet do you lust after?

For next week’s poll we are turning our attention back to the gadget world. With Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s announcement this week that “You’ll see slates with Windows on them this Christmas,” we thought it was time to find out which tablet you’re hoping for in your stocking.

Apple’s iPad is still by far the most popular device in this category, with sales in the second quarter of 2010 reaching 3.3 million, according to DisplaySearch, an arm of the research firm NPD Group.

“The first quarter of 2010 signaled the birth of the tablet PC, and possibly by extension, the beginning of the end of the mini-note market, especially in developed regions,” said John Jacobs, director of notebook market research. “Apple has leveraged their successful iPhone business model onto the iPad.”

However, with a slew of low-cost Android tablets in the works, as well as the Dell Streak, the much-heralded Samsung Galaxy Tab and the business-focused RIM PlayBook, the market is suddenly starting to look rather crowded.

Meanwhile, tablets running Windows 7 – possibly built by HP – are yet to emerge, but a prototype of an HP device, demonstrated on YouTube, was described as a “trainwreck in the making” by one of our eWEEK US writers.

Maybe you think a Windows tablet is what we’ve all been waiting for – to finally pose a real challenge to Apple’s dominance in the sector. Or maybe you think the whole tablet revolution is over-hyped, and you’d much rather stick with your laptop.

Let us know what you think. Vote using the poll on the left hand side of the site and join the debate.