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BSA's Tactics and Motives Questioned
_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."
They quote d'Idiot. Wasted click.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
CmdrTaco like boy scouts. Hell, he likes all boys. Especially the kind with a hairless cock just waiting to be sucked.
It's kind of like the guy at a market, selling pirated DVDs, having got raided and saying, "Just see if I stock MPAA movies now!"
To hurt someone, by taking your business away from them, you actually have to have had some intent to give them real business (as opposed to simply using unpaid copies) in the first place.
The only way that the BSA is going to come after you is if they get tipped off that you are violating your license. If that happens it means that people at your company knew they were infringing. I'm sorry, but in my world thats not gray, thats black. Having one valid license to a software product that was copied 200 times doesnt make it "gray".
Except that the logistics are nowhere near what you are making them out to be. If you have unique product keys installed you should be ok. And you dont even need an IT department that is competent enough to keep track of a few numbers, the product key is usually stored on the computer when you install it. Really they are only going to get upset with you if you have 500 computers all using the same product key. And if that happens you really deserve to get burned.
When I pay may taxes is it ok for me to tell the IRS "hey, I paid 92% of my taxes, isnt that good enough for you? Whats with the witch hunt?"
If the other 8% was deliberately violated I really cant see the gray area.
"We hired a guy to go through and audit and get us legal, but he didn't work out," the business owner said. "So we fired him and that's when he went and ratted us out."
What, are we supposed to feel sorry for the business owner aka software pirate? Watch out, here comes the clue bat...don't fire people who you hire to clean up your illegal messes. What is it with incompetent business owners who blame their employees. If you don't have the competence to manage your company's finances without breaking the law, maybe it's NOT the guy you hired who isn't working out.
Wanted: Clever sig, top $ paid, all offers considered.
Oppressive??? Over-throw (sic)??? You seem to be conflating private businesses with governments. You *do* realize that no one is putting a gun to these people's heads and forcing them to use Microsoft/Adobe/Apple/Autodesk products, right? Or don't you? It seems like you think that these companies have governmental powers compelling businesses to use their software.
Of course, the fact you're trying to ignore is that for the majority of business applications there's no F/OSS adoption because, well, the F/OSS alternatives just plain suck. (Seriously, is anyone in the mainstream engineering community actually using PyCADD? How many graphic designers are using GIMP?). This isn't going to change; F/OSS authors are almost universally uninterested in adapting their software to meet business needs (or do not have the time or talent or resources).