Review:
This video is about software piracy and the SPA's attempts to combat the problem
through ``audits.''
The video opens with some company executive sitting at his desk talking
about an incident that has recently occurred.
There are comments along the lines of ``I knew we had a problem'' and
``I thought we'd never get caught.''
This scene switches to two people at the company exchanging some copies of software.
Their tone is friendly and non-malicious, just two colleagues helping each other
out. They just need the various pieces of software for a few hours or a day each.
The exchange is clearly intended to be an example of the problem at the company
and why it seemed so benign to the executive.
The scene changes again to two people coming in to the reception area of the company.
One is a U.S. Marshall and one is from the Software Publishers Association.
The company is about to the ``audited'' / ``raided.''
Employees have to move away from their computers and the SPA representative audits
the software on the computers.
A list of the copies of software on the computers is presented to the executive and
he is asked how many have valid licenses.
The company's only attractive option is to destroy unauthorized copies, purchase
legal copies and pay the SPA's costs.
The SPA representative says ``it would have been a lot easier if you had
taken our earlier letter seriously.''
The executive gets chewed out by his superior.
But it turns out that his superior had received a warning letter from the SPA,
passed it on to the executive, and they had both effectively ignored it.
The obvious message here is not to ignore letters from the SPA!
The executive figures that it was probably some unhappy former employee that
turned the company in to the SPA.
The executive makes comments such as
``we didn't enforce our own policy,'' ``it may cost me my job'' and, the title of
the video, ``it could have been so easy'' to have handled software acquisition
the right way.
I recommend this video as a ``must view'' for undergraduate CS/CE/IS majors in an ethics or professionalism course. One reason is of course that software piracy is a serious problem, and the video is good at making the point that actions people commonly rationalize as benign are in fact illegal. Another reason is practical -- the SPA and the BSA really do organize and conduct such raids. A viewing of the video should probably be accompanied by reading some news articles about SPA raids on companies that would be known to the students. A third reason is that this video should be good for provoking some higher-level discussion. For example, the SPA is a legislative lobbying arm for the industry, and has influenced the creation of the legislation which now gives them this power.
The video is obviously created in keeping with the SPA's mission to protect and advance the interests of software publishers. However, that does not negate its value as a teaching tool. In addition to the intended theme of the video, it may be useful and fun to discuss the legislative / political process through which the SPA works for laws that more favorable to the software industry.
Video Format/Length:
The video was viewed in VHS format, approximately 7 minutes long.
Ordering Information:
This video was created by Software Publishers Association.
The copyright date is 1995.
Ordering information can be found at: