What do you do when you discover pirated software

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CraftyChicken

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 3, 2007
Messages
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Curious question or the [H]ard dudes and dude-ets, out there...
What do you do when you discover pirated software while working on a friend/family computer. I just got a box dropped off by a cousin who needed help with his girlfriend's computer. It was totally fragged. Full of viruses, blotware, and the HDD on it's last legs throwing all kinds of disk errors.

First thing I notice, other than the dozen popups from that fake spyware crap, was the Norton 2008 Enterprise Antivirus. After imaging the HDD, I ran magic jelly bean to find office 2007 enterprise and Windows XP Pro installed. Of course the XP Pro key is different from the XP Home key on the back of the gateway box, and googling the serials takes you straight to warez sites. Turns out she took the system a couple of times to a local shop, where they obviously installed the pirated software.

Anyway, the girl wants her office back. I told her no way no how am I going to install pirated software back on her system if I wipe it. I showed her open office, which she of course turns down. So I politely tell her to 'take a hike,' pack up the box and wish her good luck. I explained that my lab pays for my technet subscription, and I'm not going to risk loosing it, my job, or my savings by reinstalling pirated software.

Anyway, my better half doesn't think I handled the situation well, so I'm wondering what ya'all do in situations like this.
 
Its hard to know what to do when it comes to family.

On one hand you know its wrong but on the other hand you severely inconvenienced your family and stopped them from using pirated software they might have otherwise not been able to afford to purchase.

How does your technet sub have anything to do with this anyway? Just curious.
 
Rebuild it with the software that they have licenses/media for.
Install a free alternatives like OpenOffice and AntiVir and tell them it will get them by, that you don't have access to pirated stuff. Done.
 
I would turn them in to Microsoft and collect my $100,000 reward and move to Mexico.
 
Riddlinkidstoner said:
How does your technet sub have anything to do with this anyway? Just curious.
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I told them before they showed up I could download the *.iso's to install and use the XP/Office key on the back of the system, since she apparently 'lost' the discs. Didn't take long to look through the gateway manual/invoice and see that the box didn't come with office, and that the COA was for XP home and not pro.
 
Normally, I'm not a person who normally discourages piracy, but this might be a time to nicely put you foot down. Chances are the end user either installed the software (or more likely had the software installed for them), they would be better off going back and reinstalling the software themselves or complaining to the original computer builder.

Frankly, it's not your responsibility if you don't want to do it.
 
I wouldn't re-install pirated software for a random person, but honestly if it were family or a close friend, I'm not gonna lie... I'd probably help them the best I could (or even better, suggest an open source alternative).

I'd don't think I'd ever rat someone out though (unless they're selling it, thats a different story), that's really shady
 
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Don't copy that floppy...

Seriously, you take the heat for installing it on the ignorant end user's computer. There's no reason to put yourself at risk over it. You did the right thing.
 
Do they really need Pro over Home? If you installed Home would they even notice it wasn't Pro? I would just install Home with the key she has and OpenOffice, tell them if they bought Office you would install it.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
Rebuild it with the software that they have licenses/media for.
Install a free alternatives like OpenOffice and AntiVir and tell them it will get them by, that you don't have access to pirated stuff. Done.
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This ^

Doing what YeOldeStonecat said is probably your best bet. If they really want Office 2007 tell them to pony up the $89.99 for it.
 
CraftyChicken said:
Turns out she took the system a couple of times to a local shop, where they obviously installed the pirated software.
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Wait, so it was the local shop that installed the pirated software and not the family friend?

If she paid the shop for repairs and/or new software, and the shop installed the pirated software, absolutely turn them in to Microsoft, and MS should help her out on getting proper licenses.

If she's the one who installed pirated software, then you should do exactly what you've done - don't re-install it, but don't turn her in for it.
 
Well it gets better, nothing like being straight up lied to.

She picked up her box this morning. I got the run-around about why I won't just reinstall everything for her, she "need(s) it to work...please please please. I need Office Access for work" Blah Blah Blah. (Why does a secretary need access anyway?) She gave me the leacture of how she coudn't afford office. I told her you can get access for $90 standalone.

Told her it's running, that I didn't delete anything other than malware, that you still have your office 2007, but I doubt I got every sneaky little thing off, and even if she and her son changes their habits it's probably going to crap out eventaully.

I called the local shop to bitch them out. Turns out it was her school district that provided the software. In January the local shop cleaned the malware as best they could and sent her on her way, the owner's story was basically the same as mine. He tried to tell her to stop her kid from downloading P2P and torrents, or if he is going to at least use an antivirus program. Interstingly, he said in January they had 5GB of mp3s, now they have 25GB on their HDD.

I showed her the google hits of her XP and Office Enterprise keys, and explained that most organizations don't make it a habbit to upload that information to warez sites. Maybe someone in the district uploaded them, or maybe the district got it from an unscrupulous vendor, or maybe their IT staff is willfull in it, who knows.

Of course, I get the 3rd degree from the womanfolk in my house again, untill *gasp*, they find out there might be a reward for turning in the school district. Gotta love society... sometimes you just can't win for losing.

Moral of the story, sometimes the best favor you can do for someone is to tell them to take a hike.
 
If it was totally fragged, I would fix it - reinstalling software they have legitimate disks/keys for, and tell them aside from the personal documents, the rest was unrecoverable......and they will need to install the rest themselves. I still wouldn't go out of my way to get them Warez.

If the computer was fixable without losing the installed programs, I would fix it, and mention the fact that there's Warez on it, and suggest they find free/paid alternatives.

CraftyChicken said:
Well it gets better, nothing like being straight up lied to. Turns out it was her school district that provided the software. Moral of the story, sometimes the best favor you can do for someone is to tell them to take a hike.
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Huh. I still say fix and walk away. Unless it's a non-pay job then just walk away.
 
At one of my old jobs I discovered that the majority of all the software being run within the company was pirated. We're not talking about a tiny little company either. Not huge, no but they had 8 locations throughout New York state with probably around 10 workstations at each. All were running shiatloads of pirated stuff. Adobe Suite (CS at that time) Acrobat, some RIP software, Office, all of it pirated.

When I first got hired as their "Senior Designer" I thought it was odd that they had NO boxes or documentation from all this software laying around, but I figured they had volume licenses or some such. Well one time I was looking for a file on the FTP and found a folder crammed full of warez that the IT dept was installing on the machines. We're talking garbage warez nonetheless, like the downloaded from demonoid.txt files were still sitting there in the folders.

I never turned them in or anything because it would have taken that entire company down but I did tell them they needed to clean up their act unless they want to be on the business end of a BSA lawsuit on my way out.
 
Considering it was installed by some other shop, I would have used Magic JellyBean to get the keys, and then reinstall what they had. I also wouldn't hesitate to this girl that she was being ripped off, and then also report the shop to Microsoft.
 
CraftyChicken said:
Anyway, my better half doesn't think I handled the situation well, so I'm wondering what ya'all do in situations like this.
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You took a reasonable stance and followed through on it without compromising your values. Why your better half feels this was the wrong move is beyond me.
 
A cousin's girlfriend doesn't usually count as close family. At most that would get from me a fresh copy of (legit) Windows and Openoffice, like-it-or-not. You dont need all this drama over someone elses pirated crap.

You should email her some of the stories of the RIAA sueing a mother for $LOTS because her son downloaded songs. Would put a stop to that real quick. One thing I wouldn't do though is report to Microsoft or the BSA, unless you want that store or that school district (and its students, and its taxpayers) crushed by an 800-pound gorilla for the actions of some jerk that works there. Dont call in artillery unless you want something blown up.

Speaking of finding crazy things while fixing a buddies computer...I'm detoxxing a friends laptop, all kinds of typical malware and viruses on it. Among many other things, sometimes when you go to any webpage it instead took you to an ad-filled chinese site. This was still happening after removing all the viruses and malware, so I was confused for a few minutes until I checked something obvious...

I pointed out to him that his DNS had been hijacked to a specific IP instead of dynamic from his ISP. He says oh, thats my hacked cable modem, it has to use a different DNS server so the ISP doesnt catch me. :eek: :eek: :eek: At that point I gave up and told him he better change his passwords to every bank, stock market account and webmail hes ever used on this laptop...that got his attention.
 
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Ritorix said:
At that point I gave up and told him he better change his passwords to every bank, stock market account and webmail hes ever used on this laptop...that got his attention.
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That's fantastic. The worst/funniest this girl's box had was a BHO hijack that turned every picture (.jpg, .png, .gif) into an advertisement. Nothing beats going to an image heavy website like the MESSENGER website I've been following, and seeing all those nice pictures of Mercury turn into advertisements for Cialis.

Anyway, here's how this was all concluded. Saturday I confirmed with the local shop they didn't do this to her. Took this morning to head down to her school and explain the pitfalls of pirating software, at the behest of the girl working there and their principal who freaked out Sunday about about pirated software.

Today I found out the school contracted a private Vendor to upgrade their computers. I brought along my thumb-drive with magic-jelly-bean on it, and a quick check showed that the 4 computers in their office are all pirated XP and Office and the unregistered, completely useless Norton. At that point we all agreed to report the Vendor to the BSA, and the school is going to contact the local shop I originally thought at fault (who after visiting seem to be very reliable) to set things in order.

All's well that ends well. I was very surprised how well they handled everything. The principal was very forthcoming and reasonable, completely agreed they messed up and needed to fix things ASAP. I really expected a bureaucrat, but actually found an educator. Alas, the same can't be said for my own small town.:(
 
PLEASE post a follow up story. I want to find out what happens to the place that loaded it with illegal software lol
 
dr.stevil said:
PLEASE post a follow up story. I want to find out what happens to the place that loaded it with illegal software lol
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Did you miss it? Haha

I called the local shop to bitch them out. Turns out it was her school district that provided the software. In January the local shop cleaned the malware as best they could and sent her on her way, the owner's story was basically the same as mine
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EGOvoruhk said:
Did you miss it? Haha
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No, but I think you did. He wanted to know the ending to this part:

CraftyChicken said:
Today I found out the school contracted a private Vendor to upgrade their computers. I brought along my thumb-drive with magic-jelly-bean on it, and a quick check showed that the 4 computers in their office are all pirated XP and Office and the unregistered, completely useless Norton. At that point we all agreed to report the Vendor to the BSA, and the school is going to contact the local shop I originally thought at fault (who after visiting seem to be very reliable) to set things in order.
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So do I, by the way. Especially interested about the possible reward :D
 
Originally Posted by CraftyChicken :
Today I found out the school contracted a private Vendor to upgrade their computers.
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Meh..........Probably a friend of someone in the "whatever" department of the school who was "going to get us the same software package for half the price". Losers. I think I'll be more pissed if it was an actual business - and won't believe for a second any "we didn't know it was pirated" crap.
 
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