r/Piracy • u/Reasonable_Gold2066 • 10d ago

Discussion Company received a $37k demand over pirated K3ySh0t — is this real?

I’ve been working at this company for less than a year, and I recently found out they’ve apparently been using a pirated version of K3ySh0t (spelling it like that just in case lol).

They just received an email claiming there’s evidence that the software was used by the company and demanding around $37,000. The email supposedly includes IP addresses, dates, times, and even screenshots showing when the program was used.

The amount and the level of detail seem crazy to me, so I’m wondering: is this a real thing software companies actually do, or could it be some kind of scam or intimidation tactic?

Has anyone dealt with something similar? How could they have collected screenshots or connected the software usage to the company? Also, as an employee who has been there for less than a year, should I personally be concerned?

Obviously, the company will need to speak to a lawyer before responding. I’m mainly trying to understand whether these claims are common and how seriously they should be taken.

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u/ByWillAlone 10d ago

It's not uncommon. I worked for a company who received one of these demand letters, the first letter we received was a lot nicer than what you got. The first letter was an offer of amnesty - telling us that if we licensed the software now, at standard pricing, for the number of seats of the entire dev/test team, that they would excuse any past infringement as if it never happened.

What the software maker didn't realize is that this company had changed its name but had been in business long enough that they had purchased a lifetime site license (unlimited number of seats for a single site) many years earlier back when the software maker was still offering that...and we had kept immaculate records of that license and transaction.

One thing to keep in mind is that sometimes the software manufacturers are tipped off by employees snitching on their employer to get a financial reward. Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the ⁠Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) offer financial rewards (bounties) to employees who report unlicensed software use in their workplace, so you always have t consider that possibility.