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Is the BSA "Grace Period" a Scam?

Posted by Cliff on from the examining-shady-practices dept.

An anonymous reader asks: "I work at a small non-profit that has 18 employees plus a 13 seat computer lab. We received a form letter from the Business Software Alliance (BSA) telling us to do a self audit and if we find any unlicensed software to report it during our 'Grace Period' because 'if you organization's software is not licensed, it could become to focus of a BSA investigation'. Now this is obviously a method to scare up some business for the BSA members. If we ignore this, how likely is it that we will be 'investigated'. I know that I cannot produce the original CD's and/or documentation for some of the software that we HAVE paid for."

5 of 794 comments (clear)

  1. More Confusion... by Smelly+Jeffrey · · Score: 5, Funny

    I got confused when I read about the BSA and software. I was wondering what the Boy Scouts of America had to do with is. My best advice: Be Prepared.

  2. Has to be said by stendec · · Score: 5, Funny
    knock knock

    Who's there?

    BSA: (mumbles)

    Who?

    BSA: Unicef.

    Oh! Why didn't you say that before?

    BSA-landshark attacks pirate who opens the door.

  3. Me and the Boys by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    "Me and the boys would really hate for something to happen. We can sell you insurance to prevent, say, that vase that Frankie is leaning against from getting broken. Oops, like that."

    Actually, this campaign was going on two years ago. In the fall, I think. Same scam.

  4. A friend's solution to BSA, lawsuit threats, etc. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    A friend of mine owns a very small niche vertical intergration software company. He has a canned response for all threats of lawsuits, BSA investigation, etc. The only people he doesn't use this on is the government, since they don't need any help getting any more fucked up.

    "Can I please have your lawyers contact number, I have a fax machine, and will send all information I have to your lawyer." He then sends one piece of information (a page, one liscence, etc) at a time, every hour on the hour, to said lawyer, to cause their clients legal bills to explode. Considering that he logs everything he does and has backups dating back for the last 15 years, he has a lot of information that he can send. Legal bills are quick ways to empty someone's pockets.

  5. Oh that reminds me by jsse · · Score: 5, Funny

    one of my client did return the audit form with a letter saying that the only license they got is GPL and a copy was attached for their reference.

    Then Microsoft sales came the other week and offered an attractive 'switch' packages. How Microsoft knew he need a switch is a mistery.