Business Software Alliance "Grace Period"

The BSA is running (until January 31) a "Grace Period" for "voluntary compliance" in the cities of San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose, Houston,Norfolk/Richmond, Nashville, Indianapolis, Bozeman, and Orlando. Small businesses recieve a card in the mail, having been assigned a tracking number, so you know you're in their files. In previous press releases they state that they send out up to 700,000 of these cards simultaneously. Scanning their reported settlement victories, they then seem to pick 2-4 business to destroy. If the businesses don't go along, the BSA hires the Federal Marshals as mercenaries to help ensure compliance with their extortion. Microsoft, unsurprisngly, is a big supporter of this and pushes it to vendors as a chance to strengthen customer relations. (this is a powerpoint document, but thankfully you can also have it: translated via google). CD: Here is a link to the press release on this matter.

Comments

BSA

[nurightshu]

Am I the only sleep-deprived person who read the front page blurb thinking that the Boy Scouts of America would be sending storm troopers into the homes of 700,000 random citizens?

Guten Morgen! Ve are from ze Boy Scouts, und ve must this home search! After we have zis done, ve vill force you...to tie knots!

Re:BSA

[Duke]

"Oh and by the way BSA is a trademark of the Boy Scouts of America..."

That is why, to avoid confusion, I always refer to them as the BS Alliance.

Re:Where are they getting tips from

[Anonymous DWord]

You should provide them with an "anonymous" tip about all the software you're "stealing." Have you ever seen the online form they have for reporting piracy? There's a little section on it that you can check- "I believe that this company would attempt to eliminate the pirated software if they were informed beforehand," or something like that. Check that off, and then sue them when they bust in and steal all your Linux boxen, depriving you of work.

This is precisely what I have been talking about

[xxSOUL_EATERxx]

Note the use of Orwellian doublespeak euphemism in the BSA's chilling press release:

...for whatever reason, some businesses may not have managed their software assets properly
Translation: Robbers! Sinners! Repent, O ye unclean ones!

The Grace Period ...is a great opportunity for businesses to resolve any compliance issues before they become subjects of a BSA investigation.
Translation: the Gestapo is on the way. Grab your ankles and smile.

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is the voice of the world's software and Internet industry
Translation: The BSA is out to squeeze every last possible dollar out of software users

BSA worldwide members include Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Bentley Systems, CNC Software/Mastercam, FileMaker, Macromedia, Microsoft, Symantec, and Unigraphics Solutions
No comment necessary.

Those who scoff at Open Source/GNU should consider whether they want to live in a world where the tentacles of the BSA and their ilk -- and in an increasingly digitized world, expect, oh yes, do expect similar organizations to crop up defending the interests of digital text publishers, media broadcasters, etc.-- extend, oozing, slimy and cold, into every crevice and opening of what we used to quaintly refer to as our "private lives".

Don't forget the kids!

[Wee]

Whatever you do, don't forget to indoctrinate the kids as part of your campaign for social justice for software licensing. And remind the kids what they can do when they find a pirate. You may think of a pirate as mom or dad, but they are really thieves who should be reported immediately. As Chad Codemaster knows, there can be no innovation if software is copied. God forbid what would happen if the actual source to a program got released to the thieving masses. How would a developer eat?

-B

Re:The BSA threatened me (or rather, "Stumpy McGee

[Zocalo]

I love automated letters. You can always tell who sold their mailing list when you start getting mail for "Firstname Lastname."

I *never* use "Firstname Lastname". I always work something to do with the company whose list it is in there, and none too subtly either, so that if it turns up in spam I know who to bitch at. I'd like to see the look on their face when "Firstname Lastname" turned out to be "Microsoft Corporation". ;)

Is the BSA multinational?

[t0qer]

I went to the BSA site, and was reading the recent raids when I read this exerpt
Raided were Espina, Perez-Espina & Associates, an architectural and construction company located at the 2nd floor, The House of Architects, Juana Osmeña Ext., Cebu City, and, Arlington Engineering Services, an engineering design firm in Green Valley Subdivision, Lahug, Cebu City.

The NBI, after securing search warrants from Judge Benigno Gaviola of Cebu City Regional Trial Court, found four PCs of Espina, Perez-Espina & Associates allegedly loaded with unlicensed Adobe, Autodesk and Microsoft software. The NBI seized 13 PCs allegedly loaded with Autodesk software from Arlington Engineering Services. Total assets, including hardware and software, confiscated from the two raids was valued at almost P5 million pesos.

Well this just gives me terrified thoughts of the frito bandito crashing through my window screaming "BADGES? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN BADGES!"

Re:Where are they getting tips from

[Wendel T. Shaggy]

You are a registered business?

You don't have a registered WindowsXX (Office, etc.) license?

=> You are obviously a pirate!

The logic is quite simple. (and scary)

Attention: karma whores

[Boiling_point_]

50 comments already at +2 and nobody's posted a copy of the actual note. Did they mention a penalty for reproducing that, too??

(for comparison, here's six months ago's effort)

Re:Why is the BSA running Apache on FreeBSD ?

[fremar]

They probablycould not afford to pay for their license of WinXP + IIS :)

Re:Where are they getting tips from

[Mignon]

Here's what you do:

1. Get an old POS computer and monitor.
2. Install Linux, including X.
3. On a buddy's Windows machine, make a bitmap of the whole screen, with several MS applications prominently featured.
4. On the POS Linux box, run X with no window manager and don't run any applications.
5. Set that bitmap as the background on your POS Linux box.

Let the marshals confiscate that box, while they pass by your own, super-leet computer that doesn't even look like a computer.

Re:The radio ads are deceptive...

[ethereal]

Somehow I'm imagining a version of "The Running Man", where frightened IT managers must scurry around town buying licenses for their neglected department while avoiding BSA sharpshooters and merciless bounty hunters. If you manage to get all your machines licensed before they get you, you win the prize!

Re:How is it "extortion" to enforce the law?

[sam@caveman.org]

i don't read EULAs because for the most part they are not enforceable, because as everyone knows, nobody reads EULAs.

-sam

Re:Where are they getting tips from

[unDees]

Let the marshals confiscate that box, while they pass by your own, super-leet computer that doesn't even look like a computer.

No, officer, that's not a computer, that's, er, a table lamp.

Re:How is it "extortion" to enforce the law?

[fedos]

they asked if we purchased any new licenses as a result of the mailing and what licenses we had purchased.

To which you answered: we haven't bought any new licenses yet, we can't seem to agree on which distro of Linux to get.