Reparation for Pirated Software

[timmyo]

This one is complicated and I wish I had taken care of long ago, but I didn’t and here goes.

Two employees at our company have pirated expensive software on their computers. They did this on their own, with no permission from any company personnel. I have known about it for some time, but haven’t ordered them to take it off their computers since they don’t use it often, I really don’t have any authority over them and the person who does have authority over them would very likely not understand why I think that they should get rid of the pirated software. (It’s a family business, things get very messy when people step on others turf.)

The problem is, my conscience is telling me that I have got to do something about this, since the company technically bennefits from the work produced by this software. I can’t plead innocence on the matter since I know about it. I am pretty sure that I could convince the people to put legal copies of the software on the computer, since the legal copies have more functions anyway. The problem is, they don’t really use this software more than once a season and the software is really expensive and really is not necessary for our company. I have bought a less expensive legal alternative software that does the same job but at a fraction of the price.

How I understand it though, for sins that involve theft, reparation is necessary to the offended person or group of people. So, is it a requirement in this case that I buy the legal copy of the expensive software so that the offended party is compensated or can I buy the less expensive legal software and be done with it. My conscience is telling me that I have to buy the expensive stuff, but I am conflicted because I think it is wasteful spending since the cheap alternative does the same job. What do people think about this one? This has caused me a lot of anguish lately and I thank you in advance for the responses.

The lesson is, take care of problems when they arise and don’t put them off. They don’t go away.

 

[baltobetsy]

Take the matter to confession and let the priest decide. He has the authority to bind and loose in such matters as this. You will have much more peace this way than you will by relying on people here, no matter how many well-thought-out answers you receive. Obedience to this legitimate authority is the sure way to clear your conscience.

Betsy

 

[sirknightron]

Peace be with you

I would bring the subject up through another channel.With the owner.
Bring the subject up by allowing him to answer the question for himself. For example, tell him that you heard this story.
It’s the dog do do story.
One day a father was ask by his children why could not see an R rated movie. The kids didn’t like his answer that it was wrong for them to be involved in things like that and their reply was that it only had little bad language in it. Later the father was bakeing some cookies and the kids were excited. Then father when out to back yard and started to pick up dog do do and brought it back into the kitchen. then in one batch he put a tiny amount into the mix.
The kids said yuck I’m not eating those cookies and father replied why not it’s just little tiny bit. So how much do do does take in mix before you wount take a bite iether. So how do we keep the do do out of the mix?

Then casualy bring up the subject of pirated software without mentioning about the two whom you work with and let the owner decide.