BSA Piracy Study Deeply Flawed

zbik writes "Corante reports that The Economist has blown the lid off the BSA's recent report on software piracy (covered by Slashdot), referring to their methods as 'BS'. 'They dubiously presume that each piece of software pirated equals a direct loss of revenue to software firms.' The BSA has complained that the article is offensive but does not dispute their analysis. Score one for common sense."

Comments

OTHER HEADLINES TODAY

[Anonymous Coward]

Your Rights Online: The Sun is Hot
Your Rights Online: Osama Bin Laden Not a Nice Man
Your Rights Online: Some Politicians May Be Influenced By Money

Re:OTHER HEADLINES TODAY

[tomhudson]

Some Politicians May Be Influenced By Money

Okay, that WOULD be news - I was under the impression it was ALL politicians are influenced by money. Or booze. Or drugs. Or cheap hookers. Or all of the above.

If you've managed to find some that aren't yet, quick - post their names here. There's bound to be a few lobbyists willing to try their luck in virgin territory.

Re:OTHER HEADLINES TODAY

[ErikTheRed]

Okay, that WOULD be news - I was under the impression it was ALL politicians are influenced by money. Or booze. Or drugs. Or cheap hookers. Or all of the above.

Oh yeah? Well, I'm going to make my own political party! With blackjack! And hookers!

On second thought, forget about the political party and the blackjack!

BSA COSTING LINUS BILLIONS OF DOLLARS!

[typical]

The BSA's fraudulent activities cost Linus Torvalds over $300 billion dollars yearly in the United States alone.

Their bogus numbers have caused people to be frightened away from Linux, which Linus *could* potentially be selling for $1000. The fact that he is making *no money* from each copy of Linux used is due to the fact that the BSA has damaged the perception of Linux so much. As a product technically superior to Windows, it should have taken over by now. That's $1000 per person. There are ~300 million people in the United States, counting every man, woman, and child. (We all know that GNOME is simple enough for a baby to use, so counting babies is perfectly legitimate.) Since Linux is upgraded so frequently, people would buy a new copy about annually.

As you can see, since the BSA is COSTING LINUS TORVALDS OVER $300 BILLION DOLLARS IN THE UNITED STATES THIS YEAR ALONE, we desperately need laws to protect the starving open source software authors that are being victimized by the criminal activity of the BSA. It is crucial that we receive laws to protect these authors -- all companies choosing a non-open-source software product over an open-source software product should be required to annually submit a report with cost estimates and associated usability/compatibility testing as to why they choose not to use open source software.

No, it's just not the same. We need whatever PR people the BSA has.