Company Raids Looking for Illegal Software
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So while reading a thread on The Daily WTF[^], someone mentioned that Autodesk was able to get the legal right to walk into their offices and start searching for illegal installations of one of their products! Going on the presumption that this actually happened... While I can see some lawyer convincing a gullible judge somewhere to sign such orders, why are companies not required to do some kind of due-diligence before doing stuff like this? Granted, I am not exactly sure what this due-diligence would consist of, but you have to have SOME serious indication that pirated software is being used. You cannot just assume it because a company of 150 people only have 3 licenses to your product. Or can you...? Why is the burden of proof not on the ones making the accusations instead of the accused? Peace!
-=- James
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Remember that Professional Driver on Closed Course does not mean your Dumb Ass on a Public Road!
See DeleteFXPFiles -
So while reading a thread on The Daily WTF[^], someone mentioned that Autodesk was able to get the legal right to walk into their offices and start searching for illegal installations of one of their products! Going on the presumption that this actually happened... While I can see some lawyer convincing a gullible judge somewhere to sign such orders, why are companies not required to do some kind of due-diligence before doing stuff like this? Granted, I am not exactly sure what this due-diligence would consist of, but you have to have SOME serious indication that pirated software is being used. You cannot just assume it because a company of 150 people only have 3 licenses to your product. Or can you...? Why is the burden of proof not on the ones making the accusations instead of the accused? Peace!
-=- James
Please rate this message - let me know if I helped or not! * * *If you think it costs a lot to do it right, just wait until you find out how much it costs to do it wrong!
Remember that Professional Driver on Closed Course does not mean your Dumb Ass on a Public Road!
See DeleteFXPFilesI worked at a company once back in college where the officers fragrantly bragged to everyone about how they ripped off the CAD software from the government job they had previously. Combined with the 800 number I am sure they had sworn witnesses.
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So while reading a thread on The Daily WTF[^], someone mentioned that Autodesk was able to get the legal right to walk into their offices and start searching for illegal installations of one of their products! Going on the presumption that this actually happened... While I can see some lawyer convincing a gullible judge somewhere to sign such orders, why are companies not required to do some kind of due-diligence before doing stuff like this? Granted, I am not exactly sure what this due-diligence would consist of, but you have to have SOME serious indication that pirated software is being used. You cannot just assume it because a company of 150 people only have 3 licenses to your product. Or can you...? Why is the burden of proof not on the ones making the accusations instead of the accused? Peace!
-=- James
Please rate this message - let me know if I helped or not! * * *If you think it costs a lot to do it right, just wait until you find out how much it costs to do it wrong!
Remember that Professional Driver on Closed Course does not mean your Dumb Ass on a Public Road!
See DeleteFXPFilesI'm not sure how they got away with it, but Microsoft pioneered this about 10 - 12 years ago in partnership with BSA. Few raids made headlines, but some netted around $500,000 per occurance. It can be a shock to discover that in the US you actually have no rights. Welcome to the future.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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So while reading a thread on The Daily WTF[^], someone mentioned that Autodesk was able to get the legal right to walk into their offices and start searching for illegal installations of one of their products! Going on the presumption that this actually happened... While I can see some lawyer convincing a gullible judge somewhere to sign such orders, why are companies not required to do some kind of due-diligence before doing stuff like this? Granted, I am not exactly sure what this due-diligence would consist of, but you have to have SOME serious indication that pirated software is being used. You cannot just assume it because a company of 150 people only have 3 licenses to your product. Or can you...? Why is the burden of proof not on the ones making the accusations instead of the accused? Peace!
-=- James
Please rate this message - let me know if I helped or not! * * *If you think it costs a lot to do it right, just wait until you find out how much it costs to do it wrong!
Remember that Professional Driver on Closed Course does not mean your Dumb Ass on a Public Road!
See DeleteFXPFilesJames R. Twine wrote:
someone mentioned that Autodesk was able to get the legal right to walk into their offices and start searching for illegal installations of one of their products!
I believe that this would violate the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution, and that our Supreme Court would invalidate it in a heartbeat unless the business to be searched had signed a license agreement that waived their Fourth Amendment rights.
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James R. Twine wrote:
someone mentioned that Autodesk was able to get the legal right to walk into their offices and start searching for illegal installations of one of their products!
I believe that this would violate the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution, and that our Supreme Court would invalidate it in a heartbeat unless the business to be searched had signed a license agreement that waived their Fourth Amendment rights.
The 4th Amendment stipulates the requirement of Probable Cause. I bet that whoever authorized/signed the order felt that there was probable cause, but I would love to know what it was. It might call into question the reasonableness of the search, though. Peace!
-=- James
Please rate this message - let me know if I helped or not! * * *If you think it costs a lot to do it right, just wait until you find out how much it costs to do it wrong!
Remember that Professional Driver on Closed Course does not mean your Dumb Ass on a Public Road!
See DeleteFXPFiles -
So while reading a thread on The Daily WTF[^], someone mentioned that Autodesk was able to get the legal right to walk into their offices and start searching for illegal installations of one of their products! Going on the presumption that this actually happened... While I can see some lawyer convincing a gullible judge somewhere to sign such orders, why are companies not required to do some kind of due-diligence before doing stuff like this? Granted, I am not exactly sure what this due-diligence would consist of, but you have to have SOME serious indication that pirated software is being used. You cannot just assume it because a company of 150 people only have 3 licenses to your product. Or can you...? Why is the burden of proof not on the ones making the accusations instead of the accused? Peace!
-=- James
Please rate this message - let me know if I helped or not! * * *If you think it costs a lot to do it right, just wait until you find out how much it costs to do it wrong!
Remember that Professional Driver on Closed Course does not mean your Dumb Ass on a Public Road!
See DeleteFXPFilesJames R. Twine wrote:
SOME serious indication that pirated software is being used.
Perhaps the software had a phone home feature?
James R. Twine wrote:
You cannot just assume it because a company of 150 people only have 3 licenses to your product.
Well at least in my case if I believe needed software is too expensive (and all autodesk products are in this category) than what ends up happening is that I will only buy 1 or 2 licenses and use the software only on those 1 or 2 machines.
John
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So while reading a thread on The Daily WTF[^], someone mentioned that Autodesk was able to get the legal right to walk into their offices and start searching for illegal installations of one of their products! Going on the presumption that this actually happened... While I can see some lawyer convincing a gullible judge somewhere to sign such orders, why are companies not required to do some kind of due-diligence before doing stuff like this? Granted, I am not exactly sure what this due-diligence would consist of, but you have to have SOME serious indication that pirated software is being used. You cannot just assume it because a company of 150 people only have 3 licenses to your product. Or can you...? Why is the burden of proof not on the ones making the accusations instead of the accused? Peace!
-=- James
Please rate this message - let me know if I helped or not! * * *If you think it costs a lot to do it right, just wait until you find out how much it costs to do it wrong!
Remember that Professional Driver on Closed Course does not mean your Dumb Ass on a Public Road!
See DeleteFXPFilesMost likely an employee called and tattled. Using that statement as the probable cause, they got a court to issue a search warrant. I know a company that got hit for $2M in the late '80's after they fired someone that knew about the pirated software. It was his going away present to the company.