Licensing Technician Tools????

I've been reading about Wininternal's lawsuit against best buy

http://redmondmag.com/news/article.asp?EditorialsID=7339

And while I think that Best Buy shouldn't be using unlicensed software my question is what it a technician to do?

As I see it, most software (even the free stuff), doesn't allow you to use it for business use without shelling out major bucks which individual tech's can't afford and big companies are too cheap to buy.

I happen to work for a large company as a tech and honestly much of our software usage is questionable at best. I also hear stories of people from Geek Squad that are given no software (I mean NONE) from corperate and they are expected to fix somebody's computer that has a virus and so forth.

Through the research I'd done, the only tools that I use that are DEFINATELY licensed are ClamWin and HijackThis.

What do other people use? or like me, have you ignored the licensing as well?

 

I got a CD from a person that had a Geek Squad tech fix their PC & it didn't contain any copyrighted software.. it had tweaks, fixes, and generic drivers.
It did contain some "proprietary" tweaks they supposedly created.. not to say they don't use other tools... I am always interested in "tech cds"...
That article & posts are quite interesting...

 

When something needs to be fixed, my bosses don't care how it gets fixed, they just want it fixed...yesterday. I think they are somewhat aware that there are times when as techs, in order to get something fixed ASAP, we use whatever means necessary. It doesn't help that my work has gotten really cheap over the past few years, and basically doesn't want to spend any money on anything. They don't want to know how we fixed it, or what tools were used, they just want it done.

I don't worry one bit. If the software police crash through our doors some day, I'll just point down the hall to my bosses office. What do I care? I'm just a tool myself. I'm not gonna get into any trouble for it. I'm just a soldier following orders.


-evil

 

I mostly agree with that. However it doesn't work on a few practical grounds.
1) Ethically speaking, I know more about software than my boss, or his boss...So even if I point fingers, ultimately I know I'm using illegal software and my boss doesn't
2) If the company losses a lawsuit, I would be fired, not my boss

 

1) Ethics don't put food on the table. It's not like I'm selling humans into slavery. I need to work.

2) I wouldn't be fired for doing what I was told. My boss would be fired because he's ultimately responsible for licensing. I can plead ignorance, but he can't.


-evil

 

I'm just saying in many companies they would fire the trench workers before managment if they were lossing money. (Although I've been with the company for 3 years and have seen more managers go that associates. Entirely because their department wasn't doing well enough sales)

 

I agree, but I think that when it comes down to licensing, s- rolls uphill if you know what I mean. Like I said, we're just tools. Management should be held accountable for that. If someone like me or you were fired over that, we'd probably have a good case against the employer in court. Unless of course, overseeing licensing was in our job description, but for an average tech, it usually isn't. Thats because it's a big responsibility that comes with a hefty punishment (for the company or department, usually not the individual). But as I said, if they don't care, I don't care.


-evil

 

I'm going to go so far to say, ALL jobs are like this. We used a ton of tools where I used to work *cough* that were not licensed for business use.

Reason? Because the company didn't have the tools we needed.

Were we supposed to? No. Did anyone get fired for it? No.

As evil said, ethics don't put food on the table. You can choose to work for a company that plays by the rules, or one that doesn't(which is 90% of them).

In the end, its about whether you get your job done. If you don't, you get fired.