University-wide use of cracked OS and software – how to fix this? My university is using cracked OS and software throughout. The school is very huge at 70 hectares and there are buildings everywhere. All of the computers in the computer labs and offices are full of cracked Windows and software¹. In our computer labs, we use a cracked OS and software to program and design circuits. Also, the school is credited as a Center of Development which is a world-wide acknowledgement.

The cracked software tends to crash and produces a lot of errors leading to lots of data loss. Especially when it crashes without warning, and data sometimes can get corrupted.

My question is: How did the school get away with this, and is there a way to report this to authorities? I don’t even think my country cares about software pirating anyway (Philippines). Is there a way to report this so that the software in every computer in the university can be replaced and upgraded?




¹ Everytime we turn on the computers, the first message we see is "Activate Windows Now", and when we open the programs we use, the first thing you see is the splash screen displaying "Cracked by PerTician Cracker".
If you suspect pirated software is being used, you can report it either directly to the software publishers themselves, e.g., to Microsoft, or you can file a confidential report online with one of the various software industry trade groups, e.g., the BSA Software Alliance or The Software &amp; Information Industry Association.  (SIIA offers rewards.)

Realistically, it's the publishers' responsibility¹ to protect their intellectual property, not yours.  So once you've made a report, I'd let the matter drop.  The publishers' attorneys will take it from there.  They know how to fix blatant cases like the one you describe.  Typically what they do is offer a carrot and a stick, the carrot being a very attractive "get well" price to replace all the pirated software with legitimate copies, and the stick being the threat of a lawsuit.  The objective isn't always so much about getting paid for software previously pirated as it is about turning pirates into paying customers, changing their practices to ensure they always buy legitimate copies in the future.



¹ “It is the responsibility of the rights' holders to register, protect, and enforce their rights.”