Windows Programs that tell that they've been cracked

Hey all. This is kind of an odd case, but I was wondering what the legal ramifications are for such a situation.

I live in the United States and am the systems administrator for a company of about 40 employees. I got an odd call from a software company claiming that one of the systems at my office was running a cracked demo version of their software. They had the MAC address of the offending computer, as well as what they had used the program for, the latest files they had opened and saved with that program, and a few other bits of information.

I traced the MAC address to an employee's computer, but that employee had quit about 2-1/2 weeks ago. His computer was completely reformatted for use by a new hired person. Obviously, this software no longer resided on his computer.

The software company wanted full reimbursement for the use of their software. It only totalled $140 but the administration at my company was rather red in the face over the matter.

My question is this --
Is it legal for a program to send such information back to the company who made it if it's cracked? Granted, the employee was completely in the wrong for cracking the program. I'm not even sure what he was using it for, since the program has no use with what our company does. Anyone have any info about this? I don't feel that it's right that our company has to fork out cash for employees that abuse software like this, especially since the employee quit just days after running the software.

Actually, I think my concern is how they got the information.

 

without the user consenting to the information being sent, it's not legal. It could be a rider in the license agreement perhaps, just install their demo and check it out. If they have nothing that says "this program sends info to us, by clicking agree, you agree to that too" then you should tell them to take their scare tactics and shove it. It's not YOUR fault one of your ex-employees did something illegal.

If they do have that rider, you should try to redirect them to the person who did the cracking. Pass the fault and see what they do. If they go to all the trouble of taking you to court over something that small, might as well pay it though (that is, if they have that rider statement).

At least, that's what I would do

 

That's exactly what I did, and there is nothing in their disclaimer mentioning any sort of electronic transmissions. All it shows is what they've fixed and added in their later versions.

The administrators at my office decided to pay the fee so we don't have to deal with any future hassles, but I still feel like we've been robbed. This looks like a smear on my record because it's my job to make sure people don't install illegal software like this. I had no idea since I reformatted his system only days after he left. The fact the company called our business is even worse.

I just wish there was something I could do to reciprocate what happened.

 

If your company paid, then sadly they've just been bullied. When they first called I would have told them there's no way they could have gotten that information legally, and since they're using illegal information gathering techniques, they could just be some random hackers that were monitoring the computer til it was taken offline, assumed it was formatted, and then came to you about the illeged "cracked software."

Sorry you were Tech-raped