Is the BSA "Grace Period" a Scam?

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."

Comments

Well, I'm one of the founding members of the BSA

[Sgs-Cruz]

I helped found the BSA. And let me tell you, it is a necessary organization. Hard-working coders at companies like Microsoft, and, uh, Oracle are literally starving on the streets because people are not coughing up the measly $12,000 for a single-seat license of Office XP. And, uh, uh...

SCREW THIS. So much for 'taking the opposing point of view'. You know why the BSA exists? Because executives at giant software companies had a dream. And that dream was to have six supermodels wrestling nightly in Cristal champagne. And 0-day warez is THREATENING THAT DREAM! Think about it! Do you want to kill that dream? SUPPORT THE BSA!

Re:The people who were busted...

[MisterFancypants]

I'm sure the story has been repeated hundreds of times across the country though.

yeah just like any other urban legend...