The digital song files, which were only uncovered during routine maintenance of the Canada Revenue Agency’s network, ate up more than five gigabytes of space on government computers.
"The possession of MP3 files can potentially cause a storage burden on CRA’s networks as well as the possibility of breaking copyright infringement laws," states the 2004 report, which was obtained by The Sun through the Access to Information Act.
According to the report, a total of seven CRA employees in B.C. were found to have MP3 files on their computers. Five of those had only a handful of songs on the server, but one employee was storing 117 and another 733.
I have worked within the Canadian government, and can easily say that this happens all the time.
You should see the internal dialogs regarding software piracy for “FULL” trial use. “Who’s going to audit us, ourselves?” Cue laughter.
Sure they’d end up buying the products that suited their needs, but they would crack a demo if the demo had any limitations aside from time-limiting in a heartbeat. Though I think it’s right that they do this to save the taxpayers from vaporware that doesn’t work as advertised once the full version is purchased, I think we should all have the right to be just as informed in our decision processes regarding software purchases as our Government liberally does.