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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."
Some big organization needs to do this in response to a BSA audit request.
Why should an organization be peanalized for personally owned computers? Yes, IT can set rules and what not but how many users actually follow IT rules?
Note to self, don't bring laptop to work if company is being audited by gestapo...err, BSA.
I would suggest that you 'lawyer up'.
You absolutely need your legal counsel involved in this. An IT department is generally unsuited to handle these type of business/legal affairs.
By sucking in the legal folks you turn it from an IT problem to a 'university as a whole' problem.
Do not let them strong arm you into anything. Play hardball. Tell them you are doing an internal review that could take months.
Remember, they will be very reluctant to force the issue into a courtroom. It is very bad PR for them to take an impoverished college to court. A jury would be filled with people who all have 'unlicensed' software on their home PCs.
But in the end, you will have to make a reasonable effort to be in compliance and generally pay for the software you use. That, my friend, will be unavoidable. Unless, you switch IT platforms to a free or close-to-free software environment.
Good luck.
nuclear iraq bioweapon encryption cocaine korea terrorist
That's called barratry and it's actually illegal: If you threaten groundless legal action to blackmail or intimidate, you are abusing the legal system in an unsavoury way and I believe in most Western nations you can face criminal or civil punishment.
There's a name for this and it's called extortion. Here's how it works. I am the extorter and you are the extortee. I come up to you and say, "A little birdie told me that you are/have performed xxx criminal act. If you don't pay me off, I'll tattle on you." Note: Even if even you do pay me, you still have committed a criminal offense. Paying the extorter cannot change that. If they have legitimate knowledge that you are committing a criminal offense, taking hush money is a crime.
The BSA uses the same tactics. They allege that if you don't comply, you'll be busted. However, they're not acting on behalf of the government. In fact, with only the evidence of "I got an anonymous tip," they shouldn't be able to get a Judge to sign off on a search warrant. After all, for them to get a search warrent, the cops need to have probable cause. I don't see how a third party, who has an anonymous tip from some other third party is probable (it's heresay). Without a search warrant, there's no phyiscal evidence of criminal conduct.
In short, consult your legal professional. Don't forget that you can sue them, too.
Caveat: IANAL.
As far as I know, they have no grounds to force you to do ANYTHING unless you have signed a bulk-license or site-license agreement. Those agreements generally give you access to the software for a lot less money, but in return you give up all protection against 'unreasonable search' -- part of the agreement you sign allows them to inspect your systems to make sure you are in compliance.
If you bought your software through normal distribution channels, chances are very good you can tell them to pike off. As far as I know, a click-wrap license DOES NOT allow a search, because they can't know whether you agreed to the license without searching you first. It's only when you signed another agreement, which they have on file, that they have you over a barrel.
I will add my voice to the many others here telling you to get the lawyers involved. The BSA plays serious hardball. These people survive and can continue to exist only by extracting large sums of cash from your organization, and will use any tactic required.
They are not your friends. They are active enemies and you should treat them as such.
To all those who think the parent is a bad person forturning the competitor. NO, this is exactly what the BSA SHOULD be doing, busting professional pirates, because anyone selling OEM liscensed software on retail shelfs is exactly that. OEM liscensing is a volume discount/ get em hooked pricing model, it is not meant to be bought off of retail shelves, when you get an OEM liscensed copy you are supposed to get all support from the company selling the software, not the authors, but people who buy OEM copies retail do not realize this and call the support line of the authors, not the now out of business fly by night shop they bought the software from!
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
The way to deal with bullies is to go on the offensive. Sue back. Perhaps the most promising avenue in that direction would be to sue the BSA consituents for distributing software they know is insecure, yet laid claims to it being secure. There's a hundred years of rulings on health claims for food and other consumables that show that you're not allowed to claim something is healthful, even if you later state in fine print that it isn't. Those should make some good precedents. Be sure to quote the security specialist from Microsoft who quit recently and publicly sounded off that he couldn't understand why Microsoft still has buffer-overflow vulnerabilities. You might be able to use the precedent from some of the automotive cases in which manufacturers were proved to have released faulty products. If it can be shown that Microsoft knowingly releases a faulty product, you could turn the tables. Another point to bring up could be that Windows allows pretty much anybody with a floppy disk to install software. To me, that's faulty. Drum it into the head of everyone who will listen that insecure software opened you to unauthorized software installations.
Next, claim that the insecure software violates the DMCA by assisting in the distribution of copyrighted material... I'm sure you can find one installation of Back Orifice on your campus to back up your claim. Sound ridiculous? It's not as ridiculous as having to submit to warrantless search.
Be sure not to go on the offensive against law enforcement... on the contrary, get law enforcement angry at the BSA for wasting their time hurting the sweet little local colleges. Make sure everyone is clear that the agents could have been out fighting drug dealers. That sort of tactic worked for the tobacco lobby who convinced the California legislature that it was a waste of taxpayer money to run anti-smoking ads when the money could be put towards birth-defect research. There's always something more worthy out there.
Lobby your congresspeople. If applicable, mention that the people who would profit from the search are from out of state. Remember, pork runs congress, and it's not pork if it gets diverted out of your congressperson's district. You may win this through lobbying.
They're not being nice to you, don't be nice to them.
Miko O'Sullivan
(* This is who the BSA *really* is: [big software companies] *)
Try this: Tell them you will go on a mad OSS campaign if they don't go away. Show them a proposal to spend X amount of money on OSS advertising and promotion around the campus and elsewhere.
Show them a draft of an article about BSA thuggery and why it is now time for OSS that you plan to publish.
When they send in a representative, have a bunch of Penguins, OSS posters, and Red Hat boxes around your office. Give them a free Penguin T-shirt on their way out.
Table-ized A.I.
By gum, I sure do hope I didn't offend anyone! It would be so utterly un-politically correct to exaggerate a little in making a point.
No you cretin, it has more to do with the fact that the nazi comparison is
so
utterly
treadworn
That it has no coinage any more. Every god damned thing you don't agree with, well just shout "Nazi". The quips about other folks who got massacred had more to do with the idea that yes Virginia, there really are people who get systematically killed in this world who don't give two shits about software licensing.
Get some perspective. Jesus.
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.