I don’t condone software piracy, but I also don’t condone being a snitch.

Or maybe folks could just hold off buying Adobe Creative Suite 4 if their current copies of Creative Suite 3 are still getting the job done? Some speculate that as economic hard times continue, businesses will skimp on their IT spending, and instead use inappropriately acquired software.

The payouts from 2008 amount to almost 6 times those from 2007, where a meager $23,000 was handed out to snitches. They’ve also been pushing their “Know It, Report It, Reward It” program to get people to inform them of software piracy. The Business Software Alliance which represents many of the big names in commercial software - Adobe, Microsoft, Symantec, and many more - has for years been coercing companies into submitting to voluntary software audits, in the hopes that software piracy might be discovered and prosecuted. Psst, buddy! Wanna make a quick $3,200? All you need to do is rat out someone you know who’s illegally using commercial software.

Snitch software