Washington, D.C. – August 4, 2005 – The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal trade association of the software industry, today announced that they awarded two whistleblowers $5000 apiece for reporting their current or former employers continued use of pirated software to SIIA.

Through its Corporate Anti-Piracy Reward Program SIIA offers rewards of up to $50,000 to eligible individuals who report verifiable corporate piracy through SIIA's hotline (800) 388-7478 or through SIIA's online Corporate End-User Piracy Report Form: http://www.siia.net/piracy/report/soft/corp/.

The program works to encourage corporate software-compliance and provides an incentive for employees who report piracy to provide the most detailed, accurate and reliable information possible.

“SIIA is the first and only trade association to offer cash rewards to sources who report software piracy of U.S. companies,” said Keith Kupferschmid, SIIA’s VP of Intellectual Property Policy and Enforcement. “The Anti-Piracy Rewards Program has proven to be a very useful tool in uncovering corporate software theft.”

One of the reward recipients, a Systems Administrator who had been employed at a publicly-traded company with offices throughout the Southeastern U.S., said software piracy at the company was intentional and unapologetic. On several occasions, he informed management of the widespread use of unlicensed accounting and anti-virus software at the company’s offices. Each time he mentioned his uneasiness to management, he was told that the legal status of the company’s software was not his concern.

“Every company I’d worked for in the past made it clear in no uncertain terms that copying or installing unlicensed software even once was cause for immediate dismissal”, said the whistleblower. “I was shocked that the company I was currently working for had essentially purchased a single piece of software for each of their branches and then proceeded to install that one copy on hundreds of servers and workstations”.

Troubled by the company’s cavalier attitude, the employee decided to report the violations to SIIA and opted to participate in their Anti-Piracy Reward Program. Since employee tips are an invaluable tool in the fight against corporate software piracy, SIIA offers participants a generous percentage of the settlement paid by the offending company. In order to be eligible, the whistleblower must provide detailed information and offer their full cooperation during the investigation.

SIIA’s scrupulous discretion and guarantee of anonymity has ensured that , no whistleblower has ever been positively identified by their company during the 18 years SIIA has been engaged in anti-piracy activities.

In both cases, SIIA began a thorough investigation upon receiving the employee’s report. The companies were subsequently confronted with the allegations and were unable to produce valid license documentation. Faced with the prospect of a massive civil lawsuit filed by SIIA and its members, both companies agreed to settle their respective cases out of court.

In addition to the substantial fines paid by the companies, part of their agreement stipulates that they purchase valid software licenses and adopt and implement internal software usage policies and procedures.

“Companies that install unlicensed software are engaging in theft, pure and simple,” said Kupferschmid. “Sooner or later, companies that pirate software are going to get caught and that’s when they discover that their choice - which they thought would cut expenses – ended up being a very costly business decision. Additionally, since the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act companies have IT obligations that, if violated, could expose their executives to penalties that far exceed a civil lawsuit.”

The other reward recipient simply added, “Companies have a basic corporate responsibility to insure that they’re running legal software. Not doing so is a blemish on their record and an embarrassment to them and to their employees.”