Business System Consultation Center - Our Business System ColumnVol.82 2018.03.01 Takahashi Minoru

Are you using pirated software?

Thank you for your interest and continued support.
This is Takahashi from the Marketing Plan Research Laboratory.


Suppose I were
“the person in charge of cracking down on license violations for in-house software at a major software company,”
I would carry out my duties as described in steps 1 through 6 below and continue to achieve unparalleled results.


① I would instruct our software development department to incorporate a feature into our software
　　“automatically send a notification stating that ‘a license violation is occurring’ to a specific server on the Internet.”


② I would personally launch a website (and a corporate entity if necessary) titled “Internal Reporting Service for License Violations: 1 Million Yen Reward”


③ Send bribes to the responsible employees at each ISP *About 100,000 yen each, handed over in cash should suffice


④ In exchange for the bribes mentioned in step ③, issue the following orders to the ISP employees:
　　1. Search the history of the license violation notification communications mentioned in step ① above and create a detailed report including subscriber information and the number of communications
　　2. Use the information from item 1 above to file a false internal report with the website mentioned in step 2


⑤ Verify the violation report obtained through the report in step ④ (either hire a private investigator to look into it or bribe employees of the violating company to make them confess)


⑥ Submit the violation report compiled in ⑤ to my company’s superiors and legal department, then leave the rest to them


If steps 1 through 6 go smoothly, I’ll receive a portion of the compensation as a reward, so it’s a huge moneymaker.
Eventually, if I establish a dedicated licensing enforcement company and delegate the operations to employees,
I’ll be able to live a life of leisure for generations to come.


So, while the above is essentially a “fantasy” with absolutely no factual basis,


I often hear about license investigation cases that make me wonder,
I often hear about license investigation cases that make me wonder,


License investigations begin when you suddenly receive a call one day from a major software company or its Japanese subsidiary.
The investigator will say nice-sounding things like, “This is for customer satisfaction,” “It’s a random spot check,” or “Your response is voluntary,” but
from the perspective of the party being investigated, once such an inquiry begins,
it’s best to assume they’ve already identified a potential violation to some extent.


Of course, it goes without saying that it’s best not to violate licensing terms in the first place,
there are also cases where people unknowingly use pirated software or similar products and end up violating the terms,
・Purchase CAD, OS, editing software, and other high-cost software from official websites or authorized retailers
• Tell employees, “We want to keep expenses down, but we’ll purchase licenses properly, so please report your needs.”
• If you discover a PC in violation, don’t just uninstall the software—go ahead and dispose of the entire machine
• For software that does not explicitly permit reuse on multiple PCs or repaired PCs, purchase a new copy each time
・We recommend keeping detailed records—even in an Excel spreadsheet—of what you purchased, how many copies, and at what price, as well as on which PC and for whom you installed them, and when
We recommend paying close attention to details such as these.


That's all, Thank you for reading.

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