Software piracy watchdog the Business Software Alliance (BSA) has doubled the potential reward for UK workers who report their employer for using iillegal software.
The BSA, which is funded by companies such as Microsoft and Adobe, is now offering a reward of up to £20,000 to anyone who reports illegal software usage in an organisation before the end of June.
“We think this is an appropriate time for people to consider the value of the software they use,” said Siobhan Carroll, regional manager for northern Europe at the BSA.
“By doubling the incentives for informants we are also effectively doubling the risk for businesses of getting caught out. Hopefully this will make software licensing a higher priority.”
Recent BSA-commissioned research by polling organisation YouGov revealed that 64% of the 2,000 UK employees questioned would report illegal activities to an external body if they had raised an alarm internally but their reports had been ignored.
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Disgruntled workers are even more likely to report illegal goings-on. Almost two thirds of respondents would consider reporting the company if they felt their employer treated them unfairly, and 27% said that large salary rises for the board or poor salary reviews for staff could spur them to act.
