This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of BSA | The Software Alliance for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.
Developing software don’t just take days. Often, it takes years and years of research, design, development, and testing. If you are working as a developer in a software development company, or in charge within a software development life cycle, you know how tough it can be. You often have to work in a large team, doing long hours just to get some things right. And there are obviously salaries to pay among other expenses within the business too.
Software piracy is pretty common these days, as people make excuses about how expensive they are. Sadly, downloading pirated software is quite easy and accessible to anyone with an internet connection. Online activations can be cracked and pirated software installations can also be shared among millions of other users within minutes.
If you are on the light side and realise that piracy hurts software companies and especially the people behind them, there is now a way to take action. BSA | The Software Alliance, a non-profit trade association, provides a place where you can report unlicensed software use and also possibly get paid for it. It’s not just the incentive, but a safe and easy way to lodge a software piracy report. Your name will be kept strictly confidential.
Now, the BSA investigation team obviously need to investigate your claim first before they can start paying you money, so the process may take months. The form to fill in is available online and it’s as easy as typing all the details in with your keyboard at home.
I’d say it’s always best to let your management or I.T department know if you notice a pirated software installation on your computer. Often, some don’t realise what they are doing is software piracy or may not even understand about commercial software licenses. You should use the BSA reporting platform in a responsible manner, rather than just focusing on the cash rewards itself.
If you are a business owner who is still practicing software piracy, it really is the time to stop – especially knowing that there is a tool out there to report you in (although that shouldn’t be the motivation for you to stop pirating).
To find out more or to report unlicensed software use, make sure to visit BSA – Report Piracy Now page.