BSA's New Million Dollar Reward?

Business Software Alliance (BSA) - an organization that goes after companies that violate software licensing - said it will offer up to $1 million for qualified piracy reports. The company "will intensify efforts to battle software piracy in the workplace by increasing its current rewards incentive from $200,000 to $1 million from July to October 2007," the company wrote in a press release.

But don't start planning your earlier retirement just yet. BSA's rules and regulations make it clear that any reward paid out will be based entirely on how much BSA can collect from an infringing company. For a reporter to receive a $1 million reward, the infringer must be first made to pay over $15 million in damages. Lesser damage payments result in lesser reward payments.

Nevertheless BSA's program is bound to entice people into reporting suspected cases of piracy. According to BSA, an independent study conducted by IDC in 2006 revealed that 21 percent of software in the United States is unlicensed.