Bounty (reward)

Bounty (reward)

A bounty (from Latin "bonitās", goodness) is a payment or reward often offered by a group as an incentive for the accomplishment of a task by someone usually not associated with the group. Bounties are most commonly issued for the capture or retrieval of a person or object. They are typically in the form of money. Two modern examples of bounties are the bounty placed for the capture of Saddam Hussein and his sons by the United States [cite news
title = Saddam bounty may go unclaimed
publisher = CNN.com
date = December 15, 2006
url = http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/12/15/sprj.nirq.saddam.reward/index.html
accessdate = 2007-08-12
] and Microsoft's bounty for computer virus creators. [cite web | title=Cheat Sheet: Microsoft's virus bounty | work=silicon.com | url=http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39120572,00.htm | accessmonthday=May 10 | accessyear=2004.] Those who make a living by pursuing bounties are known as bounty hunters.

Examples

Historical examples

A bounty system was used in the American Civil War. It was an incentive to increase enlistments. Another bounty system was used in New South Wales to increase the number of immigrants from 1832. [cite web | title=Immigration | work=geocities.com | url= http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Canyon/6387/immigration.html
accessdaymonth = 7 April | accessyear=2006
]

Bounties were sometimes paid as rewards for killing Native Americans. In 1862, a farmer received a $500 bounty for shooting Taoyateduta (Little Crow). In 1856 Governor Isaac Stevens put a bounty on the head of Indians from Eastern Washington, $20 for ordinary Indians and $80 for a "chief". A Western Washington Indian, Patkanim, chief of the Snohomish, obligingly provided a great many heads, until the Territorial Auditor put a stop to the practice due to the dubious origins of the deceased.Fact|date=August 2007

Bounties have been offered on animals deemed undesirable by particular governments or corporations. In Tasmania, the thylacine was relentlessly hunted to extinction based on such schemes. Gray Wolves too were extirpated from much of the present United States by bounty hunters. An example of the legal sanction granted can be found in a Massachusetts Bay Colony law dated May 7, 1662: "This Court doth Order, "as an encouragement to persons to destroy Woolves", That henceforth every person killing any Woolf, shall be allowed out of the Treasury of that County where such woolf was slain, Twenty shillings, and by the Town Ten shillings, and by the County Treasurer Ten shillings: which the Constable of each Town (on the sight of the ears of such Woolves being cut off) shall pay out of the next County rate, which the Treasurer shall allow." [Early American Imprints, 1st series, no. 88.]

21st century examples

Bounty hunters provided most of the prisoners held in Guantánamo Bay detainment camp.cite news
url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15361458/page/2/
title=Gitmo interrogations spark battle over tactics
author=Dedman, Bill
year=2006
accessdate=2006-12-14
publisher=MSNBC
page=2
]

Other uses

The term "bounty" is used in the mathematics, computer science, and free culture communities to refer to a reward offered to any person willing to take on an open problem in that domain; for instance, implementing a feature or finding a bug in an open source software program. [cite web
last = Evers
first = Joris
title = Offering a bounty for security bugs
publisher = CNET News.com
date = July 25, 2005
url = http://news.com.com/2100-7350_3-5802411.html
accessdate = 2007-08-12
] [cite web
title = Mozilla Foundation Announces Security Bug Bounty Program
publisher = mozilla.org
date = August 2, 2004
url = http://www.mozilla.org/press/mozilla-2004-08-02.html
accessdate = 2007-08-12
] Bounties are offered for solving a particular math problem — ranging from small lemmas that graduate students solve in their spare time for $20 US up to some of the world's hardest math problems. [cite web
title =Math Bounties
publisher = ACFNewsSource
date = December 21, 2006
url = http://www.acfnewsource.org/science/math_bounties.html
accessdate = 2007-08-12
] Paul Erdős was famous for offering mathematical bounties. [citation
title = Mathematics: Erdos's Hard-to-Win Prizes Still Draw Bounty Hunters
journal = Science
date = April 5, 2002
url = http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/296/5565/39.html
accessdate = August 12, 2007
] Bounties have been paid by the for writing Wikipedia articles.

See also

*Bounty hunter

Notes


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Bounty — may refer to: * Bounty (reward), an amount of money or other reward offered by an organization for the capture of a person or thingIn transportation:* HMAV Bounty , an 18th century British Royal Navy ship, and its replicasIn geography:* Bounty,… …   Wikipedia

  • Reward — A reward may refer to:*Bounty (reward), a reward, often money, offered as an incentive *Reward website, a website that offers rewards for performing tasks *Reward system, a collection of brain structures which induce pleasurable effects *Loyalty… …   Wikipedia

  • bounty — boun·ty / bau̇n tē/ n pl boun·ties 1: generosity in bestowing gifts esp. by will 2: a reward, premium, or subsidy esp. offered by a government Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of Law. Merriam Webster. 1996 …   Law dictionary

  • reward — I noun acknowledgment, award, benefit, bonus, booty, bounty, compensation, consideration, donation, emolument, fee, gift, grant, gratuity, guerdon, honorarium, incentive, indemnification, indemnity, meed, pay, payment, perquisite, praemium… …   Law dictionary

  • bounty hunter — Someone who who chases down defendants who have skipped bail, and turns them in. Category: Criminal Law Category: Small Claims Court & Lawsuits Nolo’s Plain English Law Dictionary. Gerald N. Hill, Kathleen Thompson Hill. 2009 …   Law dictionary

  • bounty hunter — bounty hunters N COUNT A bounty hunter is someone who tries to find or kill someone in order to get the reward that has been offered …   English dictionary

  • bounty — ► NOUN (pl. bounties) 1) a reward paid for killing or capturing someone. 2) historical a sum paid by the state to encourage trade. 3) chiefly historical a sum paid by the state to army or navy recruits on enlistment. 4) literary something given… …   English terms dictionary

  • reward — [n] payment, prize accolade, award, benefit, bonus, bounty, carrot*, comeuppance, compensation, crown*, cue, dividend, feather in cap*, fringe benefit, gain, garland, goodies*, gravy*, grease*, guerdon, honor, just deserts*, meed, merit, perks*,… …   New thesaurus

  • bounty hunter — bounty .hunter n someone who catches criminals and brings them to the police for a reward …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • bounty hunter — bounty ,hunter noun count someone who tries to catch criminals in order to receive a reward …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

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