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The RIAA owns no copyrights to songs. The member companies of the RIAA own the copyrights. Unless the RIAA has a power of attorney to make a commitment on behalf of its members, then you're confessing your sins to somebody who doesn't have the power to forgive you...

sounds alot like another business plan....

oh yeah..... these guys

I wonder how long befire the RIAA is allowed to abuse the US marshalls and local law enforcement and bust down the doors of teenagers everywhere and treat them like a rabid criminal.

They have the shakedown/protection racket tactics down though...

Can someone please tell me the difference between Organized Crime and the RIAA and BSA again? I cant seem to tell them apart.

My one question. Why?

This is the same tatic that the BSA uses during the "Amnesty" periods. You promise to be a good boy for the rest of your life, and pay them tons of money and they will leave you alone. Its also the same game that DirecTV is pulling. Admit to doing wrong, pay us tons of money, and we won't sue you. Currently the RIAA does not want money from you, but maybe they will take DirecTv's and the BSA's idea and start requesting $X per song you admit to having.

Scott Wolf - Network Engineer
http://www.aginet.com

If SCO truly has claims, then they should send out the rabid pitbull of the software industry, the BSA. I'm sure they'd love to sink their teeth into some of these infringers.

I'm personally betting diamonds to dollars that the BSA will never touch anything SCO related, now or in the future.

This is going to sound like a troll, but it's really not.

If all of the marketing weenies and pointy haired ones that use Word and PowerPoint as an email format actually had to pay for their copies of Office, they'd quickly start looking for alternatives. Those of us who'd like to stop supporting Microsoft just becausee we have to read documents created by these folks can do something very simple:

Every time you see someone using a pirated version of a Microsoft product in a system that helps maintain the lock-in, mailing you Word docs or similar, inform the Business Software Alliance. If enough of the suits get bent over and reamed by Microsoft lawyers, eventually they'll start to discover that it doesn't make business sense to pirate software. If they stop doing that, then they'll discover that the costs of using MS Office are far higher than they'd previously thought, and they'll start looking for alternatives.

1150 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 20036

But as far as I know, I never heard of the big guys (think HP, IBM, GE, P&G etc) got raided. Why is that?

Because they're members! (Well, HP and IBM, at least.)

US Software Piracy figures.

I think we are ok until we see SCO's name on this list!

In regard to open source products, depending upon the facts, open source developers may seek to enforce their legal rights civilly, or, in cases where there has been willful infringement and certain criminal thresholds have been met, criminal prosecution may also be warranted. At this time, we are unaware of any referrals to law enforcement for open source license violations. As for reporting potential criminal infringement to law enforcement, the best way to do that is to contact your local FBI office.

So how much is this piracy worth. Lets take the man hours involved in creating the product as it stands and multiply it by the average cost of a developer. This will give us a per unit cost X. Then we need to multiply it by the number of people who have sourced the product from SCO and then also the number of people that they passed the code onto. Then we will have our damages figure and then we (not me I'm not a US citizen) should report the blatent crime to the FBI and let them persue it as they said they would ( as long as the damages are sufficient enough )

Additionally we should report this blatent piracy to software industry watchdogs such as the BSA and FAST

As the whole industry knows Piracy is a Bad Thing TM they should be keen to act. :)

Has the RIAA started it's "crackdown" on IRC networks?

Perhaps not the RIAA, but a friend of mine got a cease-and-desist letter from the BSA (passed through his ISP) for being found sharing files over IRC.

And this is in Sweden :(

Only those who copy such shared works and do not delete them some reasonable time thereafter break any actual "laws"

That is pure myth and is debunked in numerous FAQs. There is absolutely no US law permitting this, and according to the BSA Europe FAQ it is not legal anywhere Europe either.

place it in Times Square on top of a photocopier with an inifinite supply of paper and ink, have I committed a crime? ...you could call this a "library".

First of all it has absolutely no relation to a library. A library does not function by making copies.

Back to your point, are you actually giving away the book (and copier)? Can I grab them say "mine" and take them home and you don't have them anymore? If so then you have given up ownership, control, and responsibility for them.

On the other hand if you set up a copy machine in your home or store and lock the originals inside then you have possetion/control/responsibility for them. If you give a free (or cheap) copy to everyone who hits a button (even if it is automated) then yes, you are breaking the law. Otherwise the local music store could set up such a machine making money and claim it's the customer infringing / making copies.

Only the person in posession of the original is capable of making a copy of it. And that is the person violating the law. If I go into a library I can take (temporary) physical possetion of a book and make a copy and it's me breaking the law. A downloader cannot take possession/control/responsibility of the original. He CANNOT make a copy. He CANNOT break the law.

The RIAA has not touched downloaders because they can't.

-

If you represent a legal interest and also represent a conflicting legal interest, this is called "conflict of interest," and you are required by strict ethics to drop one of the conflicting interests. Failure to do so is pretty much racketeering.

Free software developers don't pay for DoJ or law-enforcement lobbying. So when a big software company claims the free software infringes on a patent, the DoJ will come in like the A-Team and break stuff like a bunch of crazed chimpanzees. If the big software company has to enforce its own IP rights, then the thuggery is much more difficult. Basically this is like giving Uzi submachine guns and riot suits to the BSA.

The only way certain corporations can get out from under the economic pressure caused by free software is to somehow "make people pay." The strategy is to transfer as much of their operations to tax-funded agencies as possible, and pay 10% of the operational cost to lobbying to support keeping it taxed/funded by legislators.

And for an even more classic look try The B&W Version

Oh, sorry, we had the 'irony' conversation the other day. mumble mumble...

.02

cLive ;-)

According to this software piracy information PDF made by the BSA in paragraph 4, the US Senate is liable for this unlicensed software:

"Many businesses, both large and small, face serious legal risks because
of software piracy. Under the law, a company can be held liable
for its employeesâ(TM) actions. If an employee is installing unauthorized
software copies on company computers or acquiring illegal software
through the Internet, the company can be sued for copyright
infringement. This is true even if the companyâ(TM)s management was
unaware of the employeeâ(TM)s actions."

According to this software piracy information PDF made by the BSA in paragraph 4, the US Senate is liable for this unlicensed software:

"Many businesses, both large and small, face serious legal risks because
of software piracy. Under the law, a company can be held liable
for its employeesâ(TM) actions. If an employee is installing unauthorized
software copies on company computers or acquiring illegal software
through the Internet, the company can be sued for copyright
infringement. This is true even if the companyâ(TM)s management was
unaware of the employeeâ(TM)s actions."

It's why open source is a grass roots movement. We aim to capture hearts and minds on a fundamental and righteous level. We target the wallet second.

Open source saves the government money. Open source would create more governemnt jobs, by not only keeping existing support personnel, but also by creating openings for developers that would tailor systems to the ever-evolving government technology base and needs. It makes complete sense to switch to open source. Why we don't switch is easy to see: Microsoft gives military politicians plenty of incentive not too.

Britian, France, Japan, Peru, China and Germany are all moving to Linux and open source. Hell, some are even writing up legislation that gives incentives to businesses that do so as well. Why aren't we (the United States)?

My point is that the BSA still has something of a good reputation left, whereas the Business Software Association never did to start with. The fact that most people associate BSA with the Boy Scouts, and the idea that the Business Software Association is trying to make themselves look like the good guys, is where the confusion comes in. It would not surprise me in the slightest if it turned out they just backcronymed against the Boy Scout's good name.

Actually it was probably "calculated" very carefully. See, if their current budget permits them to decrease piracy by 1%, then they'll need a 40 times budget increase to eliminate piracy altogether. Good job security.

In 2001, piracy cost the worldwide software industry precisely $10.97 billion in lost revenue according to the BSA (well, rounded to the nearest $10 million anyway). Wow, that's a lot of money. Big incentive there for them to escalate their efforts 40 fold, to just purge the world of this horrible evil once and for all.

What is the BSA's budget anyway? I couldn't find it on their website.

Actually, I believe the story was referring to this . If you look in the methodology appendix in the aforementioned white paper, it refers back to this (or rather the previous year's version). The white paper discusses the benefits to a country's economy from dissuading piracy.

One of the major problems I see with the methodology is that it assumes that the rate of usage for a particular piece of software is the same in every country as it is in the US. I.e. if 4% of computers sold in the US use MATLAB, then 4% of the computer's sold in Vietnam must be using MATLAB, whether bought or pirated. Multiply the number of computers sold in Vietnam by 4%, subtract the number of copies of MATLAB sold in Vietnam, and the remainder must be pirated copies! They then conclude that countries which have a lower calculated rate of piracy have a better software industry. Now, if it happens to be that countries with a better software industry use MATLAB more, then it makes it look like countries that don't are pirates. This would also generate the conclusion that piracy means a bad software industry, but would be an artifact of the measurement methodology.

Note that I am only using MATLAB as an example app, and just because the methodology is poor doesn't mean that there isn't lots of copying in Vietnam.

http://www.bsa.org/usa/press/newsreleases//2003-06 -03.1628.phtml

the actual white paper is here

It starts from the premise of looking at software industry growth rates from 1996 to 2001 and predicting that even without piracy reduction, the growth of the software industry would be *greater* (in percentage terms) from 2002 to 2006.

Obviously after the bubble burst the IDC guys spent the last of their stock earnings on crack.

The study is based on the reconciliation of two sets of data: the demand for new software applications and the legal supply of new software applications.

The guy who uploaded that tarball to our public server was just an intern we hired over the summer. Unless the Executive VP of Intellectual Property personally fired up an FTP client, the license doesn't apply...

Although not in their (BSA) jurisdiction, I'd love to hear SCO use this argument against against the BSA

Isn't that the definition of the BSA?

BSA is not Boy Scouts. The joke is no longer funny.

Try this

*correction* the link above is for an outdated study. The 2002 study can be found here. Sorry for the mix up.
BSA's 2002 Study

Only if you figure number of piracy cases instead of number of piracy cases vs. the number of computers.
Check this out for more info.
BSA's study

The Study..

And of course, the BSA is against it.

--

True enough.. though I see some scary so-called "security" measures being taken against things in our general life, including the net and our freedom thereof. Glad your current guy is around to take responsibilty, I'm just not looking forward to having some of the US's laws eventually forced upon us. (up here in the Great White North)

Anybody looking for a good email address to use when signing up for pr0n? Try copyright-europe@bsa.org

At this time, MIT is not aware that the BSA has been granted authority to enforce the copyrights of its members.

According to a "fact sheet" on the BSA site (PDF, HTML-ified Google cache is here), they do actually have that authority:

What legal authority does BSA have to sue companies or conduct raids?
On behalf of each of its worldwide members, BSA has the power of attorney to their rights under the copyright laws. BSA also works directly with law enforcement officials on criminal prosecutions.

On what authority can the BSA come into my place of business, audit, and fine me?

Easily answered:
On behalf of each of its worldwide members, BSA has the power of attorney to their rights under the copyright laws. BSA also works directly with law enforcement officials on criminal prosecutions.

See Google's HTML-ified cache of a fact sheet from the BSA Web site.

I thought it meant Fuck The Police, which is a clear reference to its use by underground "Open Source" groups who distribute copyrighted works without charge?

I'm sure its right, I read it here!

you might drop the attitude.
That's all part of the game.

Copyright law refers to chartered organizations and corporations as inviduals

Really? I doubt it. US law makes special mention of corporations as owners of copyright- allowing them to hold it for longer than a mortal could. But I've never heard of any exceptions for corporations as users of copyrighted materials.

If a corporation wants such an exception, it has to negotiate one with the copyright holder on a case-by-case basis. (This is called Volume Licensing).

any license that is binding under copyright law applies to such organizations as if they were individuals

Absolutely not. If a company buys a single Adobe Photoshop and installs it for 50 workstations, the BSA will be pleased to kick their door in and start auditing. They call this offense "piracy", but it's actually "copyright infringment" (not "violent crimes on or near the ocean") (Slashdot had a discussion of this yesterday. The official BSA site has a really funny page(flash).

The newspapers provide us with amble demonstration that a company making copies of software for internal use must get a license from the author to do so, or be violating copyright. Therefore, the same legal principles will apply to GPL-based software. "nothing else grants you permission to modify or distribute the Library or its derivative works. These actions are prohibited by law if you do not accept this License."

Their bandwidth isn't, its $20 for the bandwidth to download it.

Nice way of trying to appear nice, but still screwing you...

For crying out loud, it's $20. For that you get something which many thousands of man hours have been used to produce you such a thing. Sure, you would have loved to get it for free - but once you accept that it isn't going to happen, you'll see it isn't that bad a deal.

Sure, you can download Linux for free. But don't begrugde Sun for asking $20. Hell, it's not as if they're charging you lots of money for it and they'll quite happily let you make copies of it and give it to your friends - unlike some companies. All they want is twenty lousy dollars!

Remind me not to get into buying rounds of drinks with you if that sort of amount is that big a deal to you.

Unfortunately, none of it is as good as their old "Son, I believe that's against the law !" shtick.

Ouch ! What do you do ?

Paste in here:
http://www.bsa.org/usa/report/report.php

Hours of fun, I promise you!

Paste in here:
http://www.bsa.org/usa/report/report.php

Hours of fun, I promise you!

http://www.bsa.org/usa/events/

I find it amusing that in all the "past grace events" linked on that page they have been all over the country but never come to Washington DC.

DC is a hotbed of high-tech companies as well as non-profits. The city is knee-deep in computers. But just imagine the holy hell that would rain down upon the BSA as one NGO after another gets this letter just as someone happens to be heading out the door to give congressional testimony or have a meeting at a senator's office.

WISCONSIN COMPANY PAYS SOFTWARE WATCHDOG $150,000

Download it, register it, and see how long it takes them to send you your own, personalized letter.

It would also answer the questions asked about if it checks for installed and removed software vs only installed software.

Um, sir. I did not receive any letter you claim to have sent me. But I do know that you have no reasonable basis on which to ask this court to allow you to invade my privacy. Go away or I shall be forced to counter your suit with my own. Bye-bye now.

Negotiate? Fuck you. (Ahem, not you, John, but those BSA pieces of shit.)

I checked their About page and found the following statement:

Promoting a safe and legal online world

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is the foremost organization dedicated to promoting a safe and legal online world.

We are the voice of the world's software, hardware and Internet sectors before governments and with consumers in the international marketplace. BSA members represent the fastest growing industries in the world.

BSA educates computer users on software copyrights and cyber security; advocates public policy that fosters innovation and expands trade opportunities; and fights software piracy.

Nothing in there suggests any legal authority. They are advocates not enforcers. Those letters strike me as very misleading. Anyone want to post a copy?

• More that 17 000 jobs lost due to counterfeiting and piracy
• 38 000 french jobs lost to counterfeiting
• 10% reduction in software piracy woud create 250 000+ EU jobs
• VAT (sales tax) losses from music piracy is 100 million euros (EU-wide)

Please fully expand it as Business Software Association to keep people from confusing us with these idiots.

Look here: http://www.bsa.org/usa/about/members/

How about this one? Frankly I know not much about them, but according to their unsolicited letters sent to all small and medium companies, they claims to be a non-profit organization which offers free audit for companies computer systems. They even request everybody assist in the auditing. How nice they are.



(For humor-impaired, this is a joke)