A report published by the cybersecurity firm Akamai and the hacking tracking team MUSO brings us this data.
During the first nine months of 2021, there were 132 billion visits to pirate sites, of which around 7% were to illegal software. It may seem like a small percentage, but that’s over 9 million views.
This figure registers a 16% increase over the previous year, although the critical period was 2016-2017.
If a company is found to be using some pirated software, as it is popularly known, the first risk it takes is to receive a complaint. You are violating the company’s intellectual property rights that created the program. But is it difficult to report this type of behavior?
Reporting anonymously is very easy.
The BSA organization, The Software Alliance, has already made available to everyone a web page where you can anonymously report the use of illegal software in a company. And if the complaint entails a sanction, they offer financial compensation to the complainant:
In 2018, the BSA The Software Alliance complaint portal received around 600 complaints for possible infringements against intellectual property.
We can think that being SMEs, we have less risk of being the subject of investigations than large companies. But according to the latest BSA study, complaints to companies come from the following sources:
- Complaints made by former employees (45% of the total).
- Complaints made by other rival companies (38% of the total).
- Anonymous tips from current company employees (17%)
Pirating a program may initially represent cost savings for many individuals and SMEs. In reality, it implies a significant risk, not only because of the important civil penalties for intellectual property and copyright infringement but also because of the criminal convictions of the directors of the company.
An example:
In a process that began from the information received through the website of anonymous complaints of BSA and after the lawsuit filed before the courts of Alicante. The commercial court number two of Alicante has condemned two companies to pay more than 453,000 euros in damages, in what has become one of the most significant fines imposed against companies for the reproduction of television programs. Unlicensed software.
Conclusion:
With the arrival of programs in the cloud and the rental of licenses, we have options to comply with the legality of the software we use is much more manageable than a few years ago. Many programs can be rented for months or years, and the versions are updated automatically.
Therefore, do not hesitate and try to have all your company’s software LEGALIZED.
In case of any questions, do not hesitate to contact us.
