$500 for catching a Software Pirate?!

The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) has announced that they will pay you 500 bucks if you catch a software pirate red handed. One thing you might try is to buy pirate software from eBay, and then you might become eligible for this cash.

In their "Don't Get Mad, Get Even" Campaign which is just launched, they have stated that

"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 payment is intended to help the buyer purchase a legitimate copy of the software."

The campaign will run from December 13, 2007 to January 30, 2008. However, there is a catch. The software must be one of the companies which has partnered with SIIA.

Too bad Microsoft isn't in their partnership list or I could have just bought another copy of Vista via eBay. But some big names like Apple, Adobe, McAfee, Nero, Oracle are there if you want to try.

Delete files permanently using Super Shredder

Whenever you delete some files from your system, the file is actually not erased from the system, only the index pointing to the file is destroyed, but the file's data can still be recovered.

When you delete a file on your computer, the data in that file can remain on your hard drive for weeks or even months until something else overwrites the space that it occupied.

Even if the file no longer appears in recycle bin, they can still be recovered. This poses a security threat because if anyone else has access to your system, he/she can recover deleted files and the confidential data.

If you want to permanently delete your file, you can use Super Shredder. SuperShredder works by destroying the data inside the file BEFORE it deletes the file from the system - in this way ensuring that someone can't come back at a later date and retrieve sensitive material.

In order to delete a file you can use the program to create a Send-To Menu Association(see above figure).

Then you can simply send the files to be deleted to the SuperShredder Menu and confirm the file deletion.

It is a freeware, and you can click here to download SuperShredder.

Related posts:

• Delete an undeletable file
• Recover deleted files