‘I contacted the BSA, which led to the company’s demise': Boss refuses to pay employee for labor, employee contacts BSA as revenge, leading to company's financial destruction

Eleonora Bader

Mar 29, 2023 7:00 PM EDT

Every company is, and rightfully should be, afraid of the alliance of software publishers, otherwise known as the 'BSA'. Their job is to properly enforce licensing, and they do so with pure vigor. This boss did not take a fed-up 'employee' into account when he refused to pay him his wages. The employee in question ran a small IT consulting company of his own and was convinced into doing a job for a software company his friend worked for. This is where the 'boss' came into play. OP did the work, but the boss flat out refused to pay him, saying, 'Sue me'.

So OP did. But it was a long, tiring process and ended up costing a lot more than he had anticipated. At first, he let it go, but eventually, he learned that his friend had quit, and also hadn't received money that was rightfully his. So OP took action… and that action involved talking to the BSA, as he was aware that they would be interested in this particular company.

It led, quite literally, to the company's demise. The huge settlement ruined the company, and the owner had to shut down the firm. The moral of the story: Don't mess with people's paychecks.