Jarreal Rivers

Current Events 2

October 29, 2018

 This article is about Microsoft’s long running war against people and groups that pirate

their software. This particular article is about a man who created shell companies and distributed

Windows and Office software to companies and made millions of dollars doing this. Some

worked, and some did not work. He would even send certificates of authenticity with the

products and product codes, but they belonged to companies that were not affiliated with

Microsoft. “In the lawsuit, Microsoft alleges Gamble’s actions broke laws related to copyright

infringement, fraud, false advertising and more.” (Microsoft sues distributor, 2018)

This case is a perfect example of unethical actions. Software piracy, and piracy of any

manner contains multiple different laws that are being broken as well. For example, this person,
Mr. Gamble pirated software from Microsoft, which indicates he is a thief. He then created fake

companies (shell companies) to sell a product he had no intellectual property to and make money

from it. Which means he is not someone you would ever want to do business with ever. Like in

most professions and especially IT, your image is everything. If you cannot be trusted no one

will want to hire you to work with their sensitive data and no one will want to buy your services

because they may be corrupted which will bring negative consequences to the buyer. It is never

good to use pirated software anyway because they could have been tampered with and you could

be putting something on your computer that you do not know about. Even after Mr. Gamble does

his time if that is what is going to happen, as in IT company I would not buy from him and even

if it was another company, his reputation would be tarnished.

IT is very different field than most other jobs because your moral and ethical character is

always relevant. Every company wants you to have a good moral and ethical character, but I

would say it is more important than most in the IT field. For example, if you are employed as an

ethical hacker or a systems security expert and you were to do something wrong at the company

you are at and take information you are not supposed to and sell it, if and when you get caught

your career will be over in IT. No matter how good you were at your job no one will want you to

handle their sensitive data for fear you might do something unethically and damage the

company. That is why I say having a good ethical compass is extremely important in the IT

world.
 In summary, Mr. Gamble pirated software that he had no right to and not only did he

steal data, but he also created companies in order to sell this product from Microsoft and make

profits from it. One company paid him 1.5 million dollars within a year’s span. Microsoft was

able to expose the problem and take him to court. Software piracy is a very big crime within the

computer world. Ethics play a very important part in obtaining and keeping jobs in IT and this

person would likely not be able to sell to companies since he was caught selling illegal software.

References
Levy, N. (2018, October 19). Microsoft sues 'prolific distributor' of pirated Office and Windows

software. Retrieved from https://www.geekwire.com/2018/microsoft-sues-prolific-distributor-

pirated-office-windows-software/