Lab colleague uses cracked software. Should I report it?

Question

I've just (accidentally) found that one of our colleagues in the lab (who is a graduate student) uses a cracked piece of software on his personal laptop (We were talking near his station and a pop up went up and warned about the fake license of the software).

The software is an expensive one whose student version is freely available on our shared server; however, the student version's features are often not sufficient for our tasks. So I realize that he might have to do this to handle his job. I don't know if the supervisor is aware of this.

All in all, as it's not acceptable to ignore the copyright, should I report this issue to any responsible sector?

Answer 1

I don't feel that general academic ethics obliges you to report this, unless you have reason to believe that it might be endangering the research of the lab (giving inaccurate results, introducing viruses to lab computers, etc).

You will have to make your own judgment as to whether you are obliged to report by any of the following: your own personal code of ethics, your institution's policies, your lab's internal policies, your PI's expectations, threat of lawsuit from the software vendor, your local law, or likely consequences from any of the above for failing to report. You could also consider whether to warn your colleague and give them a chance to remove the cracked software before reporting them. But all of that is beyond the scope of this site.

Answer 2

I would stay away from his "personal laptop" in the future and avoid peeking at other people's "very personal" screens. It is not your job to report this. And you should not be looking at other people's screens. He decided to use the software on his personal station, not on the resources of the university, so it is none of your concern. It is a typical "none of your business" case.

Answer 3

Are you sure it is cracked software ? A 'warning' popup could just be phishing malware and you might expect that a feature to detect piracy would just shut the application down rather than just issue a warning. Equally it could be a prompt to upgrade to a different version or just an expired demo version which is no longer usable.

Perhaps a more immediate issue is if you aren't legitimately being given the right tools for that research you are doing.

Equally you are not really under any obligation to report possible civil crimes on the basis of fairly slim evidence (what you have said here probably wouldn't stand up in court) and if it is a student using a commercial version of software which has a free student version we are talking about quite a fine ethical line in the sense that it may be just illegal but it is unlikely that anybody really cares.

While I would certainly not advocate using pirated software this is still at the stage of an suspicion and any formal accusation is either going to result in nothing happening or a lot of trouble for your colleagues to no real constructive purpose.

It is also worth considering that the software distributor may not really care about personal use of unauthorised copies by students as they are really in the business of providing bulk licenses and technical support to commercial users but would be compelled to prosecute if it was bought to their attention.

As an aside we can also speculate that providers of software who want to make it the industry standard are fairly keen for students an academic researchers to use it and get to know it, which is why they provide free academic versions. We could even speculate further that this is why this is why they are not quite as rigorous as they perhaps could be in embedding anti-piracy features. while they can't be seen to give away the full version they may not care too much (an may not want to find out) if the odd junior researcher sneaks a cracked copy even though this is clearly wrong and not to be recommended.

Answer 4

Before telling anyone, consider what would happen if he, or other grad students, found out you were the snitch. You'll have to work with these people for years to come, and there is no such thing as "anonymous reporting." You'll have to make a judgement call as to if you want to get involved.

If you choose to get involved, do not mention anything in email, go directly to YOUR supervisor. Explain what YOU have seen, and do not mention hear-say. After this, it's in your supervisors hands, don't mention it again.

Answer 5

The key here is 'personal laptop' which I assume means 'purchased with personal, not university funds'. Here's the reason:

The penalty levied on any institution for evidence of pirated software can be huge, including fees and/or restricted access to said software. (Imagine Microsoft decided to revoke all license for Word. They likely wouldn't, but they can according to their license agreement).

If it were an institutional computer, as a representative of your institution you'd be doing them a favor by alerting someone (anyone) above you. But this seems not the case. If it is a personal laptop, the onus is no longer on you. That person could still pay a penalty, though unlikely, but that would be outside the bounds of your duty to protect the interests of your institution.

Answer 6

Have you considered simply talking to your colleague about the issue?

I don't agree that this is "none of your business" case, since the computer is used in university lab, most probably connected to university network. So the university is affected by whatever risks cracked software may bear (viruses and such), and any piracy tracking will probably identify the offender as having university IP address. This may result in trouble for both your colleague and the university.

However, without solid proof you should not assume anything. Ask your colleague about the software. Chances are, they have a reasonable explanation for the error message you've seen: they may have a legit free trial version which expired, connection issues preventing license validation, missing license token etc. If they admit using cracked software, tell them it's against university policies (it almost certainly is), and give them a chance to fix the situation.

Escalating the issue right away and without warning will not win you any friends (not even your supervisor). Additionally, discovering cracked software on someone's personal laptop may lead to question about your own ethics. Depending on how you present the situation, you may be seen as either accusing someone without sufficient proof, or accessing someone's computer without permission.

Answer 7

You're looking at the problem from the wrong angle. The problem is not with your colleague violating copyright on a piece of academic software. The problem is that your lab hasn't purchased the necessary tools to complete whatever line of research you're currently pursuing.

Here's what I would personally do:

1. Ask the student what license they're currently using and if they need the lab to provide one.
2. Talk to your supervisor about purchasing a license for the lab. Since there's a free academic license for that particular software, I presume a full license for an academic institution shouldn't cost an arm and a leg.
3. Once the license is purchased notify the student and ask them to replace the license with the one from your lab.

That's it. No need to point fingers or accuse anyone of misconduct.

Answer 8

I suggest you talking with your supervisor about the case under wraps. Either she is aware of the case or not, you can rely on her to handle the situation.

I'm a graduate student in a North American university, where utilization of such cracked licenses for personal use is not only common among students, but also between faculty members! It is not something deserving, but it's a fact.

So, as I guess your supervisor is aware of the case, your report may make some trouble for your colleague and your supervisor, too. You better watch out...

Answer 9

It is not your job to enforce or report copyright law so you should not report it. Contrary to what others say here you are not complicit in a crime because it is a matter of civil law and not criminal law, so you have no obligation to do so. Legal matters aside, reporting a colleague will make it hard for you to find support in your future academic life, which is critical for all but the most trivial assignments.

Answer 10

I know there are a lot of answers here, and most of them are the same. I'm going to go a different direction.

It is entirely possible that the software is
a) demo
b) just expired
c) actually legally purchased and the warning is an error
d) legally purchased, however the person cracks it to avoid a dongle, CD check or something else archaic and disruptive.
e) something that they purchased from a non-reputable vendor and they didn't know
f) some other plausible deniability.

Thus the result is a recommendation the same as above. "Not my circus, not my monkeys."

Answer 11

Ask yourself:

Is it my business?

If no, it's a sign that you might be procrastinating. Strictly forbid yourself to do anything in this case.

If yes, ask yourself why? Would this fact affect you in a positive or in a negative way? Answering this question will provide you with a hint on what to do next, if at all. Just for the sake of an example, if it is the case that using the cracked software might really become visible over the net such that the police might come and seize the equipment including the one you need for your research, then you should probably talk to the colleague and then to his/her boss. But things might be different if software cracking is a part of research activity; then your colleague publishes on that and gets grant proposals accepted; you should support that to the extent permitted by the law!

Answer 12

I wouldn't care much if an individual has been using the software for the personal needs. Even software vendors themselves are not interested in punishing a single person. There is no real value for them in making a precedent: upon receiving a miserable surcharge they loose time, resources and often gain negative reputation (vendor vs institution is a different story though).

Sooner or later this person is going to present the results of his/her work in a form of annual report, presentation, paper, etc. If a paid version of program has been used for conducting a research, it always shows, and people from the same field will always be aware of what piece of software has been utilized.

Assuming you care about this person and you want to help, I'd suggest to show him/her some free open-source alternatives. Show the benefits of reproducible research. Sometimes people use the cracked version not because they are evil, but because they are lazy and don't want to check out for the optimal tools, downloading the first program Google spoonfed them with.

If you want to make it public, on the next group meeting congratulate the person on the achievements and ask politely how this, that or the other has been achieved (which algorightm, how it's been plotted etc.), forcing the person either to lie, or to evade the questions entirely. If the people around are literate, invested and pay attention, they will get your message. If they aren't, your accusation-driven report won't change anything anyway.

I see only one reason you need to report to your supervisor explicitly: if you have to collaborate with that individual and you cannot perform your part because you also need to use that pirated program to process the data. Otherwise I'd say it's none of my business. I get my own life and I'd better think for myself.

Answer 13

You should immediately contact the responsible authorities, and report what you have seen, otherwise you will definitely be complicit in a crime, and could yourself be prosecuted for failing to act. This is called 'accessory after the fact'. You should not put yourself at risk by remaining quiet. Remember Edmund Burke's adage "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing".

Nobody should be doing research with pirated or cracked software; it is unethical, and the results will be compromised. No cure for cancer was ever developed by criminal software thieves.

Erich Mielke

Answer 14

Report it to the vendor. They are the victim. If this is MATLAB, then it can be reported on the following web page:

https://www.mathworks.com/company/aboutus/policies_statements/report_piracy.html