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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!
ccalam - acoustic versions of new songs.
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.
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."
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.
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...
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
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...... ;)
"How the BSA Squeezes the Little Guys"
For a second I thought the title of this article was very, very disturbing.
About once every two months, our director comes to me saying that he wants MS Office installed on some box or other, and I quote him the current list price for it (£320, last I checked). He says that he's already got a copy. I tell him that you have to buy one copy per box. He says that he's got an old copy that didn't have that restriction. I tell him that the rule has always been there, and the only thing that's changed is that the new versions have the silly "activation" nonsense added. He says he never knew that.
Two months later, we do this again. Bizarre.