How can I narc and still keep my job?

December 20, 2005 7:14 PM

My company engages in immoral, and borderline illegal behavior; how can I do something about it and still keep my job?

I started working for a company only a few months ago, and already I see a lot of problems. Things that are not only immoral, but are illegal (though not criminal). Some of the things include using pirated software and not listening to the network admins request to buy legal copies, insisting I, their resident graphic person, used copyrighted work without permission, and instructed specifically to take it off "personal sites" because they would be less able to persue legal action. I also suspect they rip off other companies copyrighted and patented designs for their products, though have no proof (just a general feeling and a glance at a legal document). The owner is active in the company, and its a well established "fact" that he is sexist, though I don't know if it would be enough so to bring a harassment suit against the company. I hate working there, and have thought about how I would approach all these issues once I quit, but I'm broke, need this job, and haven't found the energy to search for much else. So am I SOL for now, or are there any agencies I can report what I see to and still keep my job?

posted by anonymous to work & money (42 comments total)

Well, when you're ready to drop the dime on the software licensing, call the BSA. But that is tantamount to signing everybody there up for a brisk rogering, so do this after you've cleaned out your desk. As for changing things while keeping your job - if it's a reasonably small firm (and it must be, given the shenanigans described) then until the owner changes, there will be no change.
posted by Triode at 7:27 PM on December 20, 2005

The BSA.

They claim that reporting is confidential, and they do take action. BSA audits can be very painful and costly.
posted by mr_roboto at 7:29 PM on December 20, 2005

How are they illegal but not criminal?

Contact the anti-piracy organization in your country and let them decide how to handle it. But realize that as long as you keep the job with this company, using pirated software and participating in other illegal behaviour YOU are vulnerable. Perhaps not legally, but certainly your reputation in the highly competitive field you are in will be tarnished with your association with them, and that counts for one hell of a lot.

So...leave the job, find some place that you'd want to be associated with, and work there. On your way out the door of your current employer start dialing the anti-piracy org.
posted by Kickstart70 at 7:29 PM on December 20, 2005

Either forget about it and continue working or find the energy and quit based on principle. I don't think you'll find an easy middle ground solution that results in your employer suddenly becoming more tolerable.

If it's as bad as all that, they're probably saving money taking other shortcuts you don't even know about. If you find an agency to bust it up you might put yourself out of work anyway. They might not be willing or able to survive operating 100% legally.

Thinking further ahead, you need to consider how useful this employer will be as a reference in future anyway.
posted by scheptech at 7:33 PM on December 20, 2005

Kickstart70 writes "How are they illegal but not criminal?"

Civil torts are illegal but not criminal. Same with breach of contract. Hell, any civil violation is, by definition, "not criminal".

Kickstart70 writes "...certainly your reputation in the highly competitive field you are in will be tarnished with your association with them, and that counts for one hell of a lot."

I doubt your reputation will be affected one iota by a software audit at your company unless you're the IT manager.
posted by mr_roboto at 7:35 PM on December 20, 2005

Before calling the BSA or anyone else. I'd take some time to take some notes on a personal pad of paper listing sources of stolen graphics. This might come in handy later when you wish to contact the victims and let them know that their works were used without their permission.
posted by pwb503 at 7:36 PM on December 20, 2005

If you're not comfortable, leave. Don't act in concert.

On your way out keep an eye out for any people who didn't clean up after their dog. Seriously, how much of a crusader do you want to be?

I hear mathowie is planning to torrent some movies.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:37 PM on December 20, 2005

And if you do decide to contact the BSA, please, for the love of God, don't use your work computer....
posted by mr_roboto at 7:40 PM on December 20, 2005

I doubt your reputation will be affected one iota by a software audit at your company unless you're the IT manager.

This also concerns me. The network admin, closest thing to the IT manager, is a friend of mine. He is in the tough spot of using the pirated software already there when he started, or having the company come to a dead stop. He's alerted them to the possible fines that come alone with using pirated software (I proofread the document he sent them; would have convinced me) and recently "snuck" some licensing in on a big computer order. But I would be a bastard if I turned the company in and he got nailed for something that he has fought to stop.

I'd take some time to take some notes on a personal pad of paper listing sources of stolen graphics.
Done that immediately with the guilty feeling in my gut as I did it. I don't know how much good it will do though since they are random graphics from personal sites.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 7:50 PM on December 20, 2005

BTW, am I wrong in assuming copyright/patent infringement is not a criminal, but a civil issue? The BSA site linked calls it a "crime", and I'm wondering if that is true in the strictest sense of the word.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 7:53 PM on December 20, 2005

I don't think you'll find an easy middle ground solution that results in your employer suddenly becoming more tolerable.

Very well said there.
posted by frogan at 8:06 PM on December 20, 2005

if yr friend has documented reporting it to the bosses he's covered in every way.
posted by bonaldi at 8:18 PM on December 20, 2005

im pretty sure certain software companies will pay a percentage of the recovered amount to the person who tipped them off... microsoft comes to mind. you might want to look into that, it might give you enough money to live off of until you find a new job.
posted by hummercash at 8:19 PM on December 20, 2005

The first thing you do, before you do ANYTHING else, is you put your concerns in writing to the management, and keep a copy.
posted by unSane at 8:28 PM on December 20, 2005

How are they illegal but not criminal?

By that I mean, if it's something you can be sued over, but not put in jail, it's a tort, not a crime. And you are not a criminal, but a tortoise*.

_{* actualy, that's a joke, the real term is 'tortfeasor' if you can belive that}
posted by delmoi at 8:32 PM on December 20, 2005

BTW, am I wrong in assuming copyright/patent infringement is not a criminal, but a civil issue? The BSA site linked calls it a "crime", and I'm wondering if that is true in the strictest sense of the word.


It can be a crime - see Criminal Intellectual Property Laws. That's what the FBI warning at the start of the dvd is about - they're not doing the leg work for civil actions.
posted by magwich at 8:36 PM on December 20, 2005

As far as the stolen graphics: You could anonymously contact the owners of the images and alert them that you think the company "may" be re-using their images (make up a cover story for yourself if you want; use a disposable Yahoo account). If you contact enough of them, and put them in touch with each other, they might be able to make a credible legal threat, or at least call attention to the company's sleazy behavior in a public forum. The key would be keeping your fingerprints off of it.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 8:38 PM on December 20, 2005

Maybe you should sniff out other people that feel the same way before acting. If you can organize a few people that are like-minded -- especially those such as the network admin / IT guy -- then your collective action might be able to do more good. For example, if you all quit on the same day, with letters explaining why. I don't know if this is really reasonable to be able to pull off, but it seems to me that if you just silently quit (and then perhaps send an anonymous tip to the BSA or something) that there's a high chance that nothing will happen, that nobody at the top will notice, and that nothing will come of it. If you really want to change the company then you'll have to make a bigger splash.
posted by Rhomboid at 8:39 PM on December 20, 2005

Um, by the way, how strong is this companies financials? A BSA audit might end up costing you your job even if it's perfectly anonymous, because the company could go belly up!
posted by delmoi at 8:42 PM on December 20, 2005

There is a small chance you can make a positive change without getting your butt (and a severance check) handed to you. There is an even smaller chance that you are going to be able to make it happen.

If you had direct contact with a client, and trusted them very much, you could ask that person to add a clause to their contract that all software used in the project be audited and demonstrably legally registered, etc.

In your environment this might seem strange, but having worked for a multinational, it was a routine clause in contracts that we had with all of our suppliers of web-related services.

If you can somehow get a client to get that into a large enough contract to get the attention of the big boss - then you might be able to make the right thing happen without losing personally.

Good luck though - it sucks to be in an organization like that. My personal experience on your side of things was happier, in that very soon after I started the "fast and wild" days ended and the company (at many employees' request) made everything right.
posted by mikel at 8:43 PM on December 20, 2005

Um, by the way, how strong is this companies financials? A BSA audit might end up costing you your job even if it's perfectly anonymous, because the company could go belly up!

This opens up a whole can of worms. If you have friends at the company, do they deserve to be tipped off in advance? etc. An audit that brings down the company could have repercussions for more than just the owners/managers. A large number of people could be put out of a job. Of course this is no excuse for illegal behavior, but is something you might want to consider.
posted by reverendX at 9:16 PM on December 20, 2005

Here's something of a dissent, then.

After reading the excellent link in Triode's post ("brisk rogering"), I feel that BSA's tactics are pretty low. Granted, your boss is kind of scummy, so he may have it coming, but I think I'd have a problem with turning the guy over to the billionaire multinational corporations' goon squad.

Yeah, of course, it's dirty to get graphics off personal sites -- especially if the stated reason is to avoid legal action! But as the graphics guy, is there no way to do it a little differently and avoid the issue? I just can't imagine the boss saying, "I need this and only this one particular Geocities graphic to be featured in your work." Maybe I'm wrong.

As to stealing trade secrets... if that's the case, that's inexcusable and they will be found and punished by people who know more for sure than you do. But the software stuff... let's be honest here. It happens. It goes on. It's exceedingly common. The Internet is increasingly making software, video, music, image, and text copyrights murkier and murkier, and honestly, most people have no idea how things work. Unless your boss is a lawyer, he may just think what he's doing is OK. Illegal, maybe, but hell, nobody actually drives 55, either. That's a very common rationalization.

So, IMHO, you could be a tool for Micro$oft, et. al., and narc (as you put it) to BSA, possibly hurting both you and your friend. I'd personally feel better with (yet another...) fairly strong letter (not e-mail) to management (CC legal if you want) that says that you've been noticing that the way the company does business has some possible legal ramifications if they don't fix it. Maybe even give some URLs like the story about BSA above, not as a threat, but painted as a "here's how these scumbags work, and I just want to make sure that our company doesn't become a victim". Maybe you get him to take notice. Maybe you don't. But it's a start, and you don't fuck anybody too bad.

And while your letter prints, go ahead and update the resume.
posted by SuperNova at 9:20 PM on December 20, 2005

Posting this on a high-googled-ranked site, with a username that links to your personal site, which has a WHOIS record including what very well could be your real name may not have been such a good idea.

Doing illegal acts, even if they are part of your job, is still illegal. Your friend is doing something wrong by working for this company. So are you. You should both quit and sic the BSA on them.

That is the perfectly moral answer... which you could do, but it would probably be over to ignore that little voice in the back of your head and keep your job.
posted by phrontist at 9:34 PM on December 20, 2005

it would probably be easier
posted by phrontist at 9:35 PM on December 20, 2005

I feel for you, and while I don't in any way condone businesses that pirate apps, I think you should at least know that the BSA is the f'ing devil before you get in bed with them. Their tactics are appalling, and I would stab myself in the eye before I ever handed someone over to them.
posted by drpynchon at 10:19 PM on December 20, 2005

Posting this on a high-googled-ranked site, with a username that links to your personal site, which has a WHOIS record including what very well could be your real name may not have been such a good idea.

My first thought exactly.

With regard to the software licenses, is this the kind of stuff you could possibly look to replace with open-source alternatives? OpenOffice instead of MS Office; Linux instead of Windows... that kind of thing?
posted by odinsdream at 10:34 PM on December 20, 2005

Also - who actually obtained the software and installed it? I would find it hard to believe that individual employees would be held liable for any software piracy if someone like BSA were to get involved - rather it will probably land at the feet of whomever clicked Next five times during the installation.
posted by odinsdream at 10:35 PM on December 20, 2005

"but I'm broke, need this job, and haven't found the energy to search for much else."

BSA pays you if your snitching results in prosecution:

From bsa.org [http://reporting.bsa.org/usa/rewards.aspx]
-----------------------------------------
Thank you for choosing to report software piracy. It's the right thing to do, and it can be "rewarding" - BSA is offering Rewards of up to $50,000 for qualifying reports.
-----------------------------------------
posted by merv at 10:59 PM on December 20, 2005

If you quit due to illegal activities aren't you entitled to employment benefits? I only speak for Canada, but here we have a specific clause that allows you to claim benefits if you quit under these circumstances. It might be the same where you are. That could help you out on the money front.

If you can leave, do it. If the company gets found out and your name is attached to any shady dealings, you could have a tough time getting a job at a reputable graphics firm.

But yeah, before you do it, document, document, document. You'll need to prove your accusations.
posted by Salmonberry at 11:07 PM on December 20, 2005

Kickstart70: I was totally going to ask the same question. I was under the impression that "breaking the law" was equivalent to "criminal activity" was equivalent to "illegal" as well. I'd never even HEARD of a tort before, so you're not alone.

*High fives fellow NAL buddy*
posted by antifuse at 2:51 AM on December 21, 2005

Oh, and yeah: I have to agree that posting this up non-anonymously is perhaps not the smartest thing in the world to do. It sucks being in the position that you're in, but if it REALLY bothers you that much, or you seriously fear legal repercussions, I would consider leaving and heading to greener pastures. I know it's hard to break out, but once you do you will feel SO MUCH BETTER. :)
posted by antifuse at 2:53 AM on December 21, 2005

[removed a few insults]
posted by jessamyn at 4:58 AM on December 21, 2005

You are going to accomplish two things if you report the company BSA: (1) your friend, the network administrator, and likely any IT higher-up will lose his job (2) the company will have to pay a fine and buy a bunch of licenses and one year down the line will return to its former business practices. In other words, you have nothing to gain and you'll likely cause a lot of harm by reporting this company. Unless you feel the company's practices are actively causing harm, it's not your problem. Write a memo objecting to your use of pirated software and start looking for another job.
posted by nixerman at 6:40 AM on December 21, 2005

Devote your energy to polishing your resume and get out. I agree with Triode that unless the boss changes their will be no change. Whether you want to rat them out later is a separate issue, but the important thing for your own sanity is to find someplace better to work. Also, I wouldn't count on any BSA money arriving in time to cover you if you got fired. It would be best to get a different job first. Good luck. (you might also want to purge the reference to your website from your userpage until you get out of the company)
posted by caddis at 7:25 AM on December 21, 2005

Just quit your job. You sound disgruntled and looking for revenge.

Everyone wants to "stick it to their company" when they work in less than ideal situations. You're not exactly blowing the whistle on illegal dumping into our drinking water, but encouraging BSA to fire your co-workers and do some nasty shit all around. Oh, and if you do this, you'll -love- dealing with the BSA. I suggest you read up on them before doing anything drastic.

Also, consider explaining this to future potential employers. "I hate my job, and I knew they were using unpaid for copies of Photoshop so I turned them in!!!" "Don't call us, we'll call you." All whistleblowing comes at a price. Do you really think this is worth it?
posted by skallas at 7:26 AM on December 21, 2005

You and your buddy in IT should jointly report the company to the BSA, sink that crap company, split any reward that comes out of it, and find/found a new company (maybe one to replace the company you're at).
posted by pracowity at 7:36 AM on December 21, 2005

Start pulling together a business case for using legal products. Cite the articles listed here as compelling reasons to use legal software and creative work. Open Office, the Gimp, etc. are excellent applications. Getting nailed by the BSA is heinously, ruinously expensive.

Look for sites with free fonts, clipart and photos. You should not agree to act illegally and immorally, especially when you are victimizing individuals.

The IT guy could be liable, possibly criminally (as opposed to civilly) liable. He should do some research on possible repurcussions and refuse to install or support illegal software, again providing better choices, and business reasons for staying legal.

If you are being harassed, document by sending email to a gmail account with details. That gets it timestamped, and Gmail's reliable. Suing and getting a settlement is a good way to teach people to behave better.

And look for another job. This is no way to live.
posted by theora55 at 7:56 AM on December 21, 2005

Is this a public company in the US? If so, it should have an audit committee and an anonymous reporting system.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 8:07 AM on December 21, 2005

Destroy them.

The world is full of vile corporations run by slimeballs and staffed by toadying scum so you'll be doing everyone a favor by eliminating one of them and helping to level the playing field for all the decent employers.

Personally, I'm sick and (expletive) tired of people covering up for illegal activities by employers. They rely on the fact that most people will want to be "nice" and not nail their filthy asses to the (expletive) wall.

I'm not talking about getting involved in some freaky paranoiac vendetta here -- just let the BSA goons do their jobs. With any luck the company will go under.

Mind you, I'm saying that as someone who worked at a company that got nailed by a multi-hundred-million dollar fine for massive malfeasance by the very most senior execs who spent their last months haranguing everyone about the importance of security protocols while simultaneously stealing everything that wasn't nailed down and (expletive'ing) over all of the lower level staff.

If you're not turning them in, you're covering up for them. Are they paying you extra for that?
posted by aramaic at 8:16 AM on December 21, 2005

I'm curious why you would think the BSA which consists of Microsoft, Adobe, etc is more ethical than your company. One company is a convicted monopolist and the other tried to jail a developer for exposing the weakness in one of their encryption schemes. You want to line their pockets and say you did a "good thing" for the world? I'd think hard about who you are getting into to bed with and who ultimately will benefit and lose in this scenario.
posted by skallas at 10:40 AM on December 21, 2005

I had that happen once when I was the IT guy for a small company. I wrote a memo expressing my concerns over the use of pirated software.

I was fired a week later so the boss could hire one of his lowlife friends.

Sometimes, it's just not worth the energy to go up against management. Sad, pathetic fact, but it's true.
posted by drstein at 10:53 AM on December 21, 2005

I'm a little surprised by people suddenly being so anti-piracy. Interesting.

Regardless, though, the way it reads to me is that you don't like your employers and want to "get them" somehow. Otherwise, why care? If you liked your job would you still care about these issues? (I mean the confirmed ones, not the suspicions).
posted by Joseph Gurl at 5:08 PM on December 21, 2005