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Shakedown: How the Business Software Alliance Operates
An anonymous source writes: "I'm a faculty member at a public university which the
Business Software Alliance contacted in a bulk mailing last Fall. Stupidly, our IT department invited them in to 'explain' licensing to us, and now we are trying to fend off an audit on our computers (public and private). Two questions: what kind of leverage does the BSA actually have against us? And does anyone have war stories, successful or otherwise, of their encounters with the BSA?" Although Slashdot is running this story as from an anonymous reader, we have contacted the source and believe the story is factual and the appeal for help is real. Consider this Slashdot's contribution to National Copyright Awareness Week.
The source continues: "The report that the BSA gave to our administration was filled with scary stories about other schools who tried to resist, so unless there's some hard evidence to the contrary I suspect our university will just roll over. We were told that:
- auditing software *will* be installed on every campus machine;
- the license for every program, on every machine, must be produced upon demand;
- failure to produce licenses for all commercial or shareware software will constitute prima facie evidence of illegal possession, with penalties that could range from the confiscation of the machine to the firing of the user;
- and this includes computers *personally* owned by faculty."
The BSA isn't all bad. First, haggles over license increase the total cost of ownership for commercial software, which makes free (as in speech) software more attractive.
:)
Second, I used them to shut down a competing software retail store once. The place was selling Microsoft OEM software off the shelf. A call each to the BSA and to Microsofts Piracy line and the place was out of business in 4 months.
It seems to me that there's no way they can force the university to fire people over licensing issues. *Especially* professors. Most of those people have tenure, you know. Professors with tenure at my university have gotten away with embezzling grant money and sleeping with undergraduate students. Depending on the tenure contract at your school, it is probably *illegal* for the university to fire professors over this issue. BSA can't possibly wield a big enough stick for this to hold any water.
As such, it seems to me like they're protesting too much. The scenario they paint is patently ridiculous.
Read Bujold. Free (as in
Personally, I enclosed a RedHat sticker in their mailing and told them where to stick it....
there are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots
If the Gestappo comes by asking if you've seen any Jews, do you ask them to explain what Naziism is all about?
Godwin's Law. Discussion over. Ask a Bosnian Muslim how he feels about your comparison. Or a Hutu.
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
BSA: We need to see licenses for all your software.
Me: This is an open source shop, but if you tell me which open source license you would like to see...
BSA: We at least need you to run this auditing software.
Me: Hmmm, seems kinda pointless, but what the hell. Do you have a Linux version?
BSA: No. You will have to remove your Linux OS and install an MS based OS that we do support.
Me: You want me to do what?!? Get the !&@$#%*@$%^& outta my sight!
The Register's article BSA deploys imaginary pirate software detector vans explains everything.
- Toby Inkster
Just nuke your machines across the board, backing up the important data, and reinstall everything after they leave. Tell them you use MSDOS Edit to write your papers in LATEX by hand. This process, while a huge hassle, is probably less hassle than the BSA will give you, and when you're done, you'll have cleared out hundreds of gigs of useless crap, reinitialized your Windows registries and effective defragmented everything in one fell swoop. Also a good time to do some software upgrades.
I know this idea is unfeasible, but I'd love to see the look on their faces when a dual processor 1.5 ghz machine boots to a dos prompt.
Maybe they interpret the U.S. Constitution thusly:
Looks like the BSA is taking lessons from Scientologists.
Darned BSA! Always camping and hiking and...trying to enforce manopolistic, cartel-like business practices! Shame!
I can see it now...the BSA auditor shows up, sees a Dell box, and walks up to it to start his Win32 auditing tools.
Then he says "what's this freaking owl doing on the login screen?"
They can't conduct an inspection if I don't open the door for them. And they better not try to get in my house without my permission --- that would be breaking and entering, and I could legally shoot them if I catch 'em doing it. I wouldn't shoot a cable guy, of course, but a BSA representative, now, that's different. :-)
When you say personal machines, do you mean machines that are actually owned by the primary user?
Makes me think of the following war story: I worked at a company that hired a few consultants who brought their own machines in. On the day of a BSA audit, one of the contractors left his laptop unattended for a couple of hours, during which one of the auditors started going through it. The auditor was still on when the consultant came back, and needless to say, he wasn't pleased.
Consultant: Get off my notebook.
Auditor: I see you have X, Y, and Z. Do you have licenses for these packages?
[note: we hired consultants who have software that we don't - they should be responsible for their own machines]
Consultant: I know who you bastards are, and I don't have to answer to you. Nobody touches my notebook but me. Get out of my cubicle.
Auditor: Sir, you are interfering with an official BSA audit. Please be patient while I finish installing this monitoring software...
[Other auditors and employees start homing in on the disturbance.]
Consultant: I won't warn you again.
[Moment of silence, then...]
[Cursing, sounds of something tearing, loud scuffle, followed by a dull *thud*.]
At this point, I tried to see what had happened, but the crowd outside his cubicle was too tight for me to get a good view. Moments later, the consultant emerged from the crowd, into the open arms of security guards, but with a strange look of triumph on his face and notebook computer clutched under his arm. A dented metal curtain rod followed shortly after (now in my possession, which I affectionately call my "BSA Stick").
I never saw the consultant again.
"Twice half-assed makes an ass whole." --Solomon K. Chang
Use their annonymous tip line. Report that your local courthouse is using illegal software. But just give the address and claim the violations are in the hundreds. Esp if you call from right outside the courthouse. Somehow I think it'd be amusing. "Your honor that computer you're using is illegal." Wham. "Contempt. Go to jail." Sorry daydreaming now.