Steve Well put, It is an ethical dilemna I have only come across a few times any usually with companies I don't have a long relationship with as they don't generally value service
When you are applying this position point out to them that a/ Nobody is forcing them to use this software (they don't have a gun to their head) and b/ There are free alternatives Also you can express to them what an insidious poition they are putting you in personally, you are not an agent of microsoft but they are contracting you to break the law. It sounds like they are a reasonable size company so you could also tell them if it was made public what their attitude was then it would not do thier image any good, if they pirate software what are their other business ethics like I can see that if they have pirated 30 copies of M$ office then to get legal would cost them about 15-25K They would be far better off paying you the money to you port them to open office. HTH Neven ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Peacocke" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2004 11:44 AM Subject: Re: [DUG-Offtopic] Follow Up To Last Post About Software | > How do you convince a company that they should | > have legitimately purchased software when they | > realise that they can install one copy of the | > application on all 30 PCs? | > | > One solution is to report them to the seller of the | > application and get them sued so they learn the hard | > way but that seems a little hash. Reason should work | > but I have, so far, failed to do this. | | Chrissy, | | You have a professional and personal ethics problem. Your request for help | states that what the company is doing is against your personal or | professional ethical standard. | | Your first port of call is your boss, but you have already done that. | | your next port is to consult professional peers, this is what you are doing | now. | | Your peers have replied that this is not a satisfactory situation in their | eyes. This should convince you that your ethical standard is in line with | other professionals in your field. | | Return to your boss and again calmly express your concerns stating (without | emotion or raised voice) that the company is asking you to go against | reaqsonable ethics for the industry, and be a party to illegal operations. | | Express to them also that, now that you are aware of this fact, to continue | will make make you a willing party to illegal operations and directly | punishable by law yourself (you, not just the company but you yourself may | have to pay a fine from your own pocket - the company cannot legally | promise to pay that for you). | | If you cannot get satisfaction from your boss, then go dierctly to the | manager above, then the manager above until you are speaking directly to | the CEO (yes, you can do that). All with professoinal attitude, not emotion. | | If you still cannot get satisfaction, then you must decide if you can | continue operating illegally or if you must look for work elsewhere. A | daunting decision that I do not envy you to confront. | | Good luck Chrissy | | Steve | | Steve Peacocke | 0274 100-122 | | | | | _______________________________________________ | Offtopic mailing list | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://ns3.123.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/offtopic | | | _______________________________________________ Offtopic mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://ns3.123.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/offtopic
