reporting illegal software

[reportmax]

Hi All,

 

Don't know if anyone of you ever came to a point where you wanted to decide on reporting illegal software from a company. I am kind of now in that situation. I have been working in the field of Architectural Visualization for over 10 years as a freelancer and lately I've been asked for a job by on of the bigger visualization companies.

 

This seems to be a company that charges more than enough for their products, hence my surprise I found out every piece of software they are using is illegal. V-ray, the full list of Autodesk products, complete Adobe suites and an immense library were all to be downloaded and used illegal.

 

As a freelancer I know it is hard to keep your software up to date. And with worse and better years I have been able to upgrade my software or invest in Libraries or Plugins. This is a company that not only has the money but seems to need only a month of work from each person to be able to afford a full range of products on a work on that persons workstation.

 

This to me seems unfair. They are obviously taking jobs away from other offices around the world. Other bigger offices might have been struggling or even had to close the because of the economical situation which had a major impact on everybody in this business, especially when they had to maintain their software subscriptions/licenses.

 

So, I don't know what your thoughts are on this or have you ever been in a similar situation? Please advise.

[Francisco Penaloza]

I think this may be a very late answer or comment regarding your post, but I know what you are talking about, been there.

I totally agree with you, I also do work as freelancer from time to time and I do spend lot of money maintaining everything up to date. I think it is up to you, to decide to do what's feel best. If you don't have any relation or interest with that company, ones could say it is the right thing to do, to report if you are sure they are using illegal software. As you mentioned it really hurt our industry, not only as developer but also as user.

 

Now if this company is sending you work for you to do, I think it will be better for you to mentioned first in private, that you don't agree or have some concern regarding the status of their software. A friendly talk can go very far.

 

Needless to say some software companies offer some monetary incentive for whistle blowers tho to me it feels a little dirty not sure why.

[kriscabrera]

yea i agree with Francisco, you should mention it up front. I try to not get myself involved with reporting company, could turn good and could turn out very bad for you career. i did work for company that have done that but goes in one ear and out of the other.

[Nic H]

dont snitch

[joshuastephens]

Thats kind of a tough issue because its an area that most people identify as grey. As an individual, I wouldn't waste my time trying to bring down a company if they weren't harming me - too much time on my part and probably more unwanted attention.

[M V]

I had a temp guy in our office the other day, who we hire through a training and Autodesk reseller. He told me he was given a class on spotting cracks and the use of illegal software. Its only a matter of time before this company gets busted. Let Karma do its job.

[Rich O]

You wouldn't get very far using a cracked version of V-ray, it changes the brightness of the output very subtly for every render (I remember years ago when I wanted to try it out first). I find it surprising the company the OP is talking about manage to use that in production.

[reportmax]

Hi All,

 

Thanks for the replies. Fransisco and Kris, I totally agree with you. There is only one catch, or two. If you would bring it up casually or as a concern, imagine the reaction you would get. When there is no intention of buying legal software, it could easily be interpreted as blackmail, even in the friendliest way of discussing. I also wouldn't buy an answer like: we're working on it, we're struggling a bit, if that clearly isn't the case. You'll soon find yourself looking for other clients / another job. But that doesn't matter in the end. I ended my collaboration with them.

 

It seems I wasn't the only one feeling this way about the company and people acted on it. The software has been reported, which I can say was an eyeopener for me. I would like to share that none of the software companies seem to even care about this. There was only one reply from the Foundry to ask if the ArchViz company would be interested in purchasing the software indicating a slight objection of the use of their software illegally.

 

Autodesk probably still likes to use the company's renders as promotion for their software, so no reaction from them. That really changed my opinion about Autodesk. I know they are also able to track the use of illegal software, like Valerostudio says, but I'm surprised they won't act on it. Especially when it's been reported. Think it would make a difference to fine or at least let bigger companies that can easily afford it, pay the price for using software. Maybe that would have prevent to turn to their 'great' new subscription policy. But that's a another issue.

 

Other companies like Adobe or Chaosgroup didn't care either. So bottom line: it doesn't make a difference to report it seems. Not sure now about Karma will get them, Valerostudio.

[Devin Johnston]

I think you should report them and let them deal with the fallout, if they are as big and successful as you say there's no good reason to be doing this. I suppose you could confront them and demand they make the switch to legal software or you'll expose them. If there willing to do the right thing then I guess you've made your point.