Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

BSA's Tactics and Motives Questioned

Posted by kdawson on from the shakedown-artist-is-still-an-artist dept.

_Hellfire_ sends us over to Baseline Magazine for a longish article entitled After 20 Years, Critics Question the BSA's Real Motives, which paints the Business Software Alliance in the same colors as the RIAA. "A recent Associated Press story highlighted the fact that 90 percent of the $13 million collected by the BSA in 2006 came from small businesses. Since 1993 the group has collected an estimated $89 million in damages from businesses on behalf of its members, every penny of which it keeps. 'I don't know of a business where you can get away with raiding a customer with armed marshals and expect them to continue to do business with you...' said [Sterling] Ball, who shifted his company to open source software after the raid."

7 of 237 comments (clear)

  1. BSA? by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 4, Funny

    I have to say, I read the headline and really wondered why slashdot was interested in the Boy Scouts of America.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
  2. Obligatory: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Fuck the BSA.

    1. Re:Obligatory: by ScrewMaster · · Score: 4, Funny

      Fuck the BSA.

      I wouldn't, if I were you. You don't know where they've been.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  3. After 20 years? by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 2, Funny

    How about: After 20 Minutes

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  4. Re:I have been in an Audit once by RobBebop · · Score: 2, Funny

    Funny thing was that MS was an angel investor in the company....

    Microsoft funded business pirates Microsoft SQL.... story at 11.

    --
    Support the 30 Hour Work Week!!!
  5. Re:Sterling Ball by Trespass · · Score: 2, Funny

    Twins. Both named 'Blue'.

  6. Re:tell them to go fish by hcdejong · · Score: 2, Funny

    Show up with a team of people, unannounced, and use ignorance, surprise, and fear to their advantage.

    In other words, nobody expects the BSA?