“Research released today by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) reveals that nearly three quarters (70%) of London workers are willing to shop their bosses for improper business practices and one in five (20%) London workers would be even more willing to report their management for extra cash in the run up to Christmas,” states the BSA press release that landed in my inbox today.

Which is handy, because the dear old BSA would like nothing more than for employees to shaft their bosses in the run-up to Christmas, launching as it has “an advertising and marketing campaign to encourage employees in London to report their companies if they think they are using illegal software.”

Is it me, or is there something deeply unsavoury about the BSA trying to claim the moral high-ground on the use of illegal software on the one hand, and then using Christmas and the recession as bait to encourage employees to grass up their bosses on the other?

It’s even more galling when Microsoft – a BSA member and one of its biggest cheerleaders – stubbornly refuses to bend when businesses complain that its licenses are so complicated they’d give Stephen Hawking a migraine. When business leaders pleaded with Steve Ballmer to simplify Microsoft’s licenses at an event in London earlier this autumn, the Microsoft boss merely laughed it off, saying: “I don’t anticipate a big round of simplifying our licences. Every time you simplify something you get rid of something.” Yes, Steve. It’s called complexity.

One of the business owners who challenged Ballmer complained that he felt Microsoft’s licensing terms were “trying to trip people up”. When the Microsoft-sponsored BSA makes such a blatant attempt to turn employees against their own companies, I can see his point.

Merry Christmas everyone.