BSA Software Piracy Fight Smacks of RIAA Crackdown

Ron Paul Dennis Kucinich writes "A Business Software Alliance raid on musical-instrument maker Ernie Ball Inc. cost the company $90,000 in a settlement. Soon after, Microsoft sent other businesses in the region around Ball's a flyer offering discounts on software licenses, along with a reminder not to wind up like Ernie Ball. Enraged, CEO Sterling Ball vowed never to use Microsoft software again, even if 'we have to buy 10,000 abacuses.' Similar BSA raids around the country have been provoking strong reactions from put-upon business owners, echoing similar reactions to music-lovers targeted by the RIAA."

Comments

Re:The solution is simple

[Slashidiot]

Yep, if you read TFA, that's what they did.

Enraged, CEO Sterling Ball vowed never to use Microsoft software again, even if "we have to buy 10,000 abacuses." He shifted to open-source software, which lacks such legal entanglements because its underlying code is freely distributed.

Authority for raids?

[shawnmchorse]

I've never understood this. The BSA is obviously just a trade group with no authority whatsoever to conduct raids and such. If they decide they need to "raid" a business, then generally they would just have a suspicion that this business 'might' have some of their software installed and some of that software 'might' not be fully licensed. Is that really enough for local law enforcement to go along with it? A lot of the coverage I've read about BSA raids seems to imply that the business involved went along with the raid voluntarily, and I have trouble understanding why any business would do so.

Re:Authority for raids?

[DaleGlass]

There's an old story on how the BSA works

Actually, you want to kill BSA/RIAA??

[Anonymous Coward]

DO call the tip line with company names. Piss off enough of the companies and yes, they will switch to Apple or Linux rather than deal with these nazis. At this time, there is not enough harassment, just intimidation.

OK if you're a poor student P2P'ing music, but...

[Jugalator]

If you're the target of the BSA, I don't feel as much remorse...

If you don't have the money to pay for the software your business use, you shouldn't use the software in the first place.

Re:The solution is simple

[Plunky]

| Yep, if you read TFA, that's what they did.

Thats funny, I read TFA and linux was not mentioned at all..

            "open source" > "linux"

No sympathy for Ball.

[t0qer]

Ball should have paid for their software.

I've mostly worked in desktop support for over 1/3rd of my life so far. I don't do cubicles or offices anymore unless it's a favor for someone that's not going to be a pain in the ass, or ask me to do back breaking work (like breaking my back lifting an 200lb IBM netfinity server onto a rack). No no, those days are over.

Over those years though I can't recount how many times a customer would need a windows re-install, or an office re-install, whatever. I'd ask for the original CD and they'd tell me "Don't you have a copy?"

The "Don't you just have a copy?" people were the same people that would nag and haggle me on my billing, like it was some sort of open air arab market, instead of a indoor air conditioned "professional" workplace.

These days i've all but quit doing IT type support, cept for a few special cases. My current business/company uses windows, and i've gotten legit copies from various places. A few programmer friends got me copies of XP from the MS employee store for $35 each, which I have running on 2 machines. I also purchased a copy for another machine for $99. The rest of the machines at my business are running Linux.

Open Office does fine for me.

Maybe because I started off in IT and knew what type jerks steal stuff, I made a personal choice that I didn't want to be like them.

Re:No sympathy for Ball.

[t0qer]

Figured i'd respond to yours, it'd space things out a bit between posts.

And how many of those were just people who legally bought a new PC with Windows preinstalled on it

Try none?

These types of customers were the worst. Always wanting cheaper cheaper cheaper. If they needed a "new" PC i'd first suggest going new dell, and if that was shot down i'd source quality parts, and they would ALWAYS pull crap at the last minute like "Oh my brother in law can build it cheaper". I'd sit there and explain things like, "If you buy a genuine intel motherboard, it's not hard to find drivers or updates, and they run solid" The brother in law would always end up getting some crap mobo that would constantly crash/bluescreen/whatever. Finding out who made the Mobo was even worse, i'd always end up having to track them down through their FCC #, and even that was a deadend sometimes.

The other nightmarish shit I had to deal with was the "Ebay" client. This guy always had to buy his stuff from Ebay. It would arrive not working, 1/2 working, missing parts and what not and it was always up to me to fix it.

Ok, here's where we get into some other nagging issues I had with these guys...

You buy crap hardware that breaks constantly or causes blue screens, then send that crap out to your employees that have to work with it all day who's the first person they're going to call? The IT guy right?

So I would get calls on the same problems. "Toqer why does it blue screen?" I'd do the usual defrag, scandisk, canned air to the case. It wasn't really my fault that their boss bought crap hardware and ran pirated software on it, but the employees still needed some sort of consolation that these problems were not thier fault.

"Toqer why am I paying for the same thing 5 times?" was what one lawyer customer would ask me. "Shouldn't you have fixed it right the first time so it didn't break and additional 4?"

Heh, I remember that day pretty clearly. I looked him square in the eye and told him, "I don't care if you no longer want my services for being honest, but I warned you that buying crap hardware would result in this situation. You have nobody to blame except your cheapness for this."

Anyways, again, to reiterate my original point, the type of people that refuse to pay for software / pirate it are the same type of people I don't want to do business with. They just have a fucked up sense of entitlement, like they're doing you a favor by breathing.

Re:Great news

[Virgil Tibbs]

search google for gimpshop and your criticisms will vanish

Re:The solution is simple

[deniable]

I knew there was a problem when companies started listing 'licensing engineers' in their schedules of rates.

Re:The solution is simple

[Blakey Rat]

Would be interesting to see a follow-up to see if they:

1) Are still using open source software, and don't have any Microsoft products
2) Are in violation of any licenses. (After all, that's what they got busted for in the first place-- you can violate an open source license too.)

But this on Slashdot, it's a non-story. It was news in 2002.

Re:10,000 abacuses? How about 10,000 Linux install

[Shakrai]

If they want to audit your business, make them get a warrant

That's what I don't understand either and perhaps somebody could explain it to me. How the hell do they gain access to all of your systems if you refuse to let them in? Are they going to sue you and force you to turn it all over in discovery?

Has anybody tried to fight them on a legal front? It would seem to me that just by showing up to court (even if pro say) and answering their motions you could drag out the discovery process for months. Months that you could use to find any out of compliance software and fix it -- or better yet, switch to OSS if that's an option for your business.

Re:BSA Tip Line

[davidsyes]

Even MORE now than ever, companies fearful of the riaa/bsa need to:

-- go with virtualization and terminal servers to remove hard drives and media access port so ANY employees who don't need them

-- replace with Open Source as MUCH software as they can

-- pony up money for consultative groups with similar passion for not being pursued by mshaft

-- come up with new NDA documents that specify that the company will counter-sue ANY employee who discloses licensing violations without FIRST notifying IT, the company counsel, and the company president (hmmm, sort of like the supposed checks-and-balances of Executive, Legislative, and Judicial?) on an OPEN display board so that no one side can snuff out the early notifications... this so that the company has a fighting chance to clean up whether or not it wantonly or negligently slipped into using illegal or miscounted copies of software...

Re:10,000 abacuses? How about 10,000 Linux install

[nsayer]

If they want to audit your business, make them get a warrant

That's what I don't understand either and perhaps somebody could explain it to me. How the hell do they gain access to all of your systems if you refuse to let them in? Are they going to sue you and force you to turn it all over in discovery?

Yes.

Has anybody tried to fight them on a legal front? It would seem to me that just by showing up to court (even if pro say) and answering their motions you could drag out the discovery process for months. Months that you could use to find any out of compliance software and fix it -- or better yet, switch to OSS if that's an option for your business.

1. Switching at that point would not matter if they found out through discovery that you previously were not in compliance.

2. Being a pro-se defendant is time consuming, and time is money in business. It would probably be cheaper (both in terms of time and, of course, effectiveness) to hire competent council, at which point it's likely that time is not your ally - certainly when compared to the plaintiff.

Any judges ever get wise to this?

[davidwr]

[BSA starts suit against company, submits evidence to a judge, and during the discovery period requests complete documentation of all software being run on company systems, along with licenses and date of purchase. If company fails to provide, BSA files for a motion to compel or some such legal mumbo-jumbo that basically gives the BSA the judge-approved legal right to take apart every computer and really ruin their day.] Any judges ever get wise to the fact that disgruntled employees sometimes lie, and that lack of proper record-keeping does not indicate lack of purchase?

I would love to see a judge tell the BSA:

OK, BSA, who exactly is your witness? Please have him fill out a sworn statement outlining each and every instance of infringement you plan on suing over and exactly how the infringement occurred. I will have a special master investigate. Unless I allow the suit to go forward you will not see the results of the investigation. If he is telling the truth I will let the suit proceed. If he is lying I will charge him with criminal perjury, fine you for bringing a frivolous suit, and I'll make sure the news media find out you tried to use the courts to screw over an innocent company. If I can't tell if he is telling the truth or lying I will dismiss the case without prejudice.