The SIIA has launched a "Don't Get Mad, Get Even" campaign to encourage buyers of counterfeit software on online-auction sites to report sellers to the SIIA and, in return, receive up to $500 to purchase legitimate replacements. The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) is a trade association for the software and digital information industry.

Keith Kupferschmid, SIIA SVP Intellectual Property Policy and Enforcement, said, "Auction piracy would not be such a big problem if SIIA and its members could get better cooperation from eBay and other auction sites. Unfortunately, these sites are unwilling to take the actions necessary to reduce the high-volume software piracy taking place on their sites. If they truly wanted to create a healthy economic environment for the sale of software they would do more to address the problem. Since they haven't SIIA has had to step in to protect consumers and the software industry."

The SIIA also launched a new Certified Software Reseller (CSR) Program in late November to certify online vendors to resell software on eBay and other auction sites. Kupferschmid said the SIAA created the reseller certification program "to provide reassurance to software purchasers on auction sites like eBay, and to help SIIA's industry-leading efforts to crack down on software piracy." Participation in the CSR program is available to any software reseller who signs an agreement with SIIA, which will allow vendors to use the CSR logo on their auction listings in return for agreeing to sell only legal software. If a certified reseller is caught selling any counterfeit or contraband software, he or she would permanently forfeit the right to participate in the program and use the logo, and "pay a steep price for damaging public confidence in the logo as an indicator of legitimate software." More information about the CSR program is available at http://www.siia.net/piracy/resellers.asp#csr.

The "Don't Get Mad, Get Even" campaign runs through January 30, 2008. The first 100 individuals who inadvertently purchase counterfeit software on an auction site, complete an application to participate in the “Don’t Get Mad, Get Even” program, submit the application to SIIA by no later than 5 pm EST January 30, 2008 and satisfy all the eligibility requirements necessary to participate in the program, will be eligible to receive up to $500 from SIIA. The money is intended to help the buyer with money to buy a legitimate copy of the software, but can generally be used as the buyer sees fit. More information is available at http://www.siia.net/piracy.