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How the BSA Squeezes the Little Guys
netbuzz writes "Actually, 90% of the Business Software Alliance's revenue is squeezed from small businesses accused of using unlicensed software. A lawyer who represents some of them says his clients often suspect that it was the IT guy who just left — and was responsible for maintaining the licenses — who ratted them out for a big BSA reward."
I would like to thank editors for giving us all another chance at first post on this story. I missed it a few hours ago - wish me luck this time!
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I thought that this has always been the BSA's standard business model.
My experience with small/medium businesses has been that the CEO/CFO don't want to spend the bucks necessary to get everybody legal and the poor IT guy gets stuck having to ignore the problem or find a new job. To the defense of C-level guys, I did work for one 1000-person company that had a very ethical CFO who insisted on being compliant. The exception that proves the rule, I guess.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
A lawyer who represents some of them says his clients often suspect that it was the IT guy who just left -- and was responsible for the maintaining the licenses -- who ratted them out for a big BSA reward.
(1) BOFH tells bosses they really should pay up for legal licences.
(2) Bosses tell BOFH to make illegal copies.
(3) Repeat a few times.
(4) BOFH gives up and finds another job.
(5) BOFH shops former bosses.
If this is a surprise to bosses who instruct BOFHs to make illegal copies of things then really it's amazing how they're bright enough to stay in business!
"... his clients often suspect that it was the IT guy who just left -- and was responsible for the maintaining the licenses -- who ratted them out for a big BSA reward ..."
People responsible for licenses in some manner are not eligible for the reward. IT guys doing this are disgruntled and just trying to "get even".
Keep in mind that small business was not chosen merely because they have fewer resourced available to defend themselves, but they were also the worst offenders. Betting that their size would keep them under the radar of Microsoft, Word Perfect, Lotus, Borland, etc back in the day. I'm not defending the BSA's actions, but their targeting is not entirely devoid of reason.
When when you skimp on salaries, make a hostile workplace, and generally make life hell, don't be surprised when your employees (or ex-employees) are not looking out for your best interest.
Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
Infinitely more likely it was the poor I.T. guy, denied access to funds to legitimise the software in the company, and unable to do anything about it with the threat of no job over his head, who finally either found a way out, or was creatively dismissed, and is now either being scape-goated, or maybe he was that pissed off he really did turn them in.
I don't believe for a second the company wouldn't know if large amounts of their software wasn't paid for. It's very common for small time I.T. guys to be, for example, pressured into installing the same software multiple times on machines, with no corresponding license, they may even be told by the boss that it's fully licensed, but you can bet your ass the boss wont take the blame if anything happens.
Any I.T. guy with even the tiniest clue would purchase all software if given the ability, and wouldn't risk his career on installing unlicensed software unless they were pressured into doing, most likely with thought of losing their job.
It's one of the biggest reasons more and more places has under qualified I.T. staff.
The qualified ones don't want the crappy pressure laden jobs, or aren't offered them as they'll be more picky about licensing.
The under qualified ones will take the job, but then feel stuck in the belief they can't get much better, and won't be able to afford the cost or time of further training.
I've seen it happen a lot, despite knowing the problem in advance it ended up happening to me after, and I still keep seeing it today after getting the hell out as my advice was simply never taken, despite it being what I'd been employed for. It was the subject of a slashdot article years back when I was stuck in a job-from-hell too.
I'd imagine something vaguely similar (but not likely to do with legitimate software, just general I.T. problems) has contributed to the UK's recent data protection issues too.
I went thru three different employers where upper management *ORDERED* the IT guys to install the same copy of MS Office on all computers in the building. At the last job, I snagged an email off the server where the CEO was discussing the issue with his CFO and basically said that if they ever got caught they would feign ignorance and lay the blame on the IT guys "doing stuff behind their backs" and installing software without their executive permission. This was a few years ago, about the same time that the BSA started running radio advertisements and putting up billboards all over the Dallas/Fort Worth area to get employees to turn in their bosses for software piracy. I left that job as fast as I could, and now work in IT for a small city government near the D/FW metroplex where our own police department is now the ones who are so eager to pirate software.
*Sigh* It never ends.
force a company to allow an audit or "investigation"?
What do they do when a small business owner says, "I use strictly Linux on my computers, no, you can't come in and look around, go pound sand."
I think this brings up a bigger point or perhaps a few. I don't argue for a second that most the reports might be from employees who just left the company. But what I don't agree with is the person themselves didn't keep the licenses up to date. They might have been responsible on paper but did they have the budget, process and resources to do it, this is the key question. I've seen it more times than I wish to recall that a new project or new employee is brought on board and the IT person has only a couple of hours to get them setup. No time for new keys and no budget for this new persons IT resources. If at the start of the year I'm told I need 100 licenses for a piece of software I'll get it. If half way though the year the company expands and we now need 200 I can almost say for certain in most companies I've worked in (small companies) they will not give me the budget for the extra 100 and the IT department will have to cut costs somewhere else or just not buy. It might even been why the employee left the company in the first place and why they are ratting on their old company. Seams like a perfect payback to a poorly managed company.
The problem though is that the BSA's standards can catch even companies that are completely above-board, but haven't kept their receipts. The BSA's claim is that "If you don't have your receipt for this software, then it's pirated."
Now, whether that would stand up in court is a separate question. It seems to me that if you have a retail box for every piece of software, that should be good enough to convince a jury. Of course, the cynic says that the BSA is going after small companies because they're much less likely to fight, so what a jury would think isn't really an issue.
I think I need to go out to the garden for a while.
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
Wouldn't it be cool if some disgruntled worker gets fired from the BSA and then turns around and rats the BSA out to the BSA? He'd have to get a reward, and the BSA would have to charge itself a hefty fine.
Shareware was made by programmers when the terms "open source" or "free/libre software" were unknown. There was no such thing as the Internet, or e-mail. Programmers coded for a living, and sold programs for a living. I remember the times where all PC computers were 386, ran MS-DOS, had 32MBytes of RAM. Programming was mostly considered a hobby except for large enterprises (i.e. Lotus, Borland, Microsoft, and such). Most hobbyists didn't pay for programming languages - they were pirated because they were too expensive.
You logged into BBS's whose phone numbers you found on specialized magazines. Meetings were held with the 5 or 10 people in your area, and paid-for software was seen as a valuable treasure. Owners of that software would share it with their friends, and the original discs were treated as some kind of ancient artifact which belonged in a museum.
That's how you learned to program back then. You pirated the language, and eventually you began producing stuff worth selling. Then you bought your first legitimate copy of the language.
That's how things were done those days. It was rough, primitive, but fun at the same time. It was the way of the Old West.
In the files sections, you downloaded all these utility programs (hard disk optimizers, text editors, quit-smoking organizers and such) that expired in around 30 days, and you could register them for 5 or 20 bucks. It was cheap, and reasonable.
These small-scale programmers were defenseless against crackers and pirates, who didn't retribute them for their effort. So they turned to the BSA to help them punish the thieves who just stole their software.
It was how business was done back then. Getting organized at a national level to make good software for free was unthinkable. You had to charge for your code, and it was OK. To program, you had to actually buy software. I remember how expensive was to purchase a copy of Borland/C++ or Turbo Pascal (with Turbo Vision!) so you could make decent programs. It may sound like heresy in the G++ times of today, but that's how it was.
It was rough, primitive, but fun at the same time. It was the way of the Old West.
But times have changed.
We have GNU and the Free Software/Open Source licenses now - and software is being developed by teams of independent programmers working for a common goal: Freedom (I'm relatively new to GNU/Linux, and I was awed at the amount of Free/Libre Open Source Software for Linux). I compare my GNU/Linux box to my close friends' windows boxes - often filled with "freeware" and paid-for/cracked shareware developed in Visual Basic most of the time, and I can't even start to describe the difference. It's all chaotic and primitive in the Windows world.
When I go to a webpage and see a Windows app for say, transferring your ipod files to your computer, or ripping/burning a CD, I see the price tag and think: "Are they kidding me? They charge for THIS STUFF?"
The BSA and old software business models (just like the RIAA and MPAA's) are going the way of the dodo bird. They have no place in the open world of today.
They are a manufacturer of guitar strings. I seem to recall an article (perhaps even posted to /.) about them getting stung by the BSA. The responded by deploying Linux and going to open source software.
;)
As I recall, it worked out well for them.
Then again, perhaps I should take the time and google "Ernie Ball" and see if my memory is correct
A goal is a dream with a deadline
How is prosecuting people for stealing your software 'extortion'?
This is taking the slashdot pro-piracy meme too far. I run a (one man) company, I use legit software. It can cost a lot, but you weigh up the pros and cons and you buy it. Poser cost me $600 plus maybe another $300 of add ons. Its the cost of doing business. It's no different to paying for the desk, my PC, the heater in my home office or the phone bill.
I have zero sympathy for small businesses that would try and undercut me by stealing software. Fuck em. let them be prosecuted. It's not like people really do not realise that photoshop or visual studio isn't freeware.
I'm all for slashdot readers posting about how companies should use open source free software so they don't have to deal with this, but how can you defend people who KNOW there are free alternatives, but decide to steal a copy of an office suite anyway...
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Absolutely correct!!
I've always told my guys if ever asked to perform and audit, of IF someone ever shows up at the door, NEVER allow it. NEVER allow the guy into the building without a court order. I think that's still legit in the US (GWB may have stopped this, I'm not sure, because it's classified).
While not technically BSA-related, my company gets calls regularly (twice a year) from big software companies asking us to do an audit. I politely decline. Then I tell them we are covered under our parent company's volume agreement, and the phone practically goes dead on the other end. These are sales-initiated calls. Once they realize they won't get any money, they move on, just like a telemarketer.
I will not mod parent up. I think the /. moderation system is wrong and only leads to the dysfunctional and judging society that we all live in today. Everyone accepting each others posts at +5 insightful is paramount to the utopian world we all long for...... ;)
Receipts aren't always what they're looking for, but they can help. For Microsoft applications and system software, they're often looking for the Microsoft 'Certificate of Authenticity' with the hologram on it. Only small businesses, many of which use whitebox PCs, often don't save their CoA's because no one told them to.
Anyway, small-to-medium businesses are easily the most likely to pirate software internally because they often don't have the budget for doing software audits and the like. Plus, in order to get a project out quickly, many small firms with tight budgets will pirate a copy of mission critical applications, with the idea that they'll buy the license later, when the project pays out. Unfortunately, they also usually forget to buy the license later, and personnel go on using the pirated software and become reliant on it -- and this happens in large part because they don't have the budget for doing software audits or license management!
If anyone's looking for a killer business idea, it's this: start a company that just does license management for small businesses. Sell the services in a high-volume, low cost subscription model that lets small businesses pay a small fee every month, say $20-30 in addition to the cost of software, to manage their license portfolio. IOW, provide enterprise-level software portfolio support ala Software Spectrum, at a small business price. Hire some guys from India or down South to do customer support and watch the revenue trickle in.
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"How the BSA Squeezes the Little Guys"
For a second I thought the title of this article was very, very disturbing.
So you would like to conflate records necessary for tax purposes with just general "justification of ownership".
That's such a wonderful world you live in there.
You keep the tax records because you will be making claims about them. What is the justification for keeping reciepts for every single thing you've ever purchased (even if you are a business) again?
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
"all PC computers were 386, ran MS-DOS, had 32MBytes of RAM"
Thats one hell of a lot of RAM for a 386...
I was ordered to copy the OPERATING SYSTEM to all computers in our office.
I sure hope Linus Torvalds isn't a BSA member. We'd be so screwed!
Six years ago I was the I.T. Director for a manufacturing firm. I had numerous arguments with the company president about software licensing and how we were dancing on the edge of disaster. I finally left in disgust.
Once I'd left I contact the BSA and told them what I knew. A few days after my first contact they called me and told me they weren't going to pursue. The reason they weren't going to pursue is because the company was on shaky financial ground.
So if you're going to pirate, make sure you're financially unstable.
Not to nitpick, but I owned Turbo C++ and Turbo Pascal. They were about $100-130 each. Sure, most computer programs were $30-40, but it still wasn't that expensive.
And 386s with 32MB of RAM? Maybe there were some, but they hardly grew on trees. Christ, most hard drives back then were 40-80MB. My 4MB RAM upgrade cost me $400, so 32MB on a PC? Come on.
And there certainly was email. I ran a WWIVnet board, and another BBS in town had FidoNet (seemed overcomplicated for the end user). Sure, it took 7 days for a message to get from Michigan to Mexico, but it got there.