Only once and I honestly am still conflicted about it 15 years later.

I was fired from a small company that used a lot of pirated software (Microsoft products everywhere). The firing wasn’t because of my performance, but because the owner wanted to make room for his stepson to come into the job I held. It was during the holidays and he wouldn’t even let me stay until after Christmas (two weeks away). I was called into the office, told I was being let go, and told to get my things and leave by the end of the day.

I went back to my office and, from there, filed a report with the Business Software Alliance to report all of the pirated software they used. I then packed my stuff, told my friends goodbye, and left the office.

Later, I heard that the BSA came in and hit them hard. They had over $350,000 worth of unlicensed software for which they had to pay and, I believe they might have gotten hit with a fine on top of that. Since this was a very small company (12 employees), it hurt them pretty bad and they had to lay off two people.

In the beginning of this answer, I said I feel conflicted about doing this and here’s why: I worked at the company for a little over 2 years and knew they used pirated software the entire time. I even used pirated software to do my job with the full understanding that it wasn’t licensed. It never bothered me enough to report it until I was fired. I have to accept that, while I told myself it did at the time, this had nothing to do with morals or ethics on my part but was purely revenge.

I’m a little ashamed of that.