Slashdot Mirror
Flaws In a BSA Software Piracy Report?
Ian Lamont writes "The Business Software Alliance has just released its state piracy study (full PDF also available). The BSA says that one in five pieces of software in use in the United States is unlicensed, and notes that piracy rates are highest in Ohio (27%). However, as noted by the Industry Standard, there are problems with the state study, and the way the BSA is presenting the data: the study only includes eight states, and it is making some questionable connections, including the claim that lost state and local tax revenue from piracy would have been enough to 'hire nearly 25,000 experienced police officers.'"
Jack booted thugs with body armor and machine guns? I would seriously doubt that. If they did, I would love to report myself with a false tip and have them walk face-first into a claymore.
Welcome to Florida, where I can lawfully defend my home and private business with lethal force!
I guess they forgot to use additional experienced. What is more important they missed to report is how many more additional experienced police officers a state could hire if they replaced MS software with FOSS. I bet it would be enough for every one in the state to be hired as and officer.
The flaw is the in the definition. Buy a new computer move your programs. Leave the old ones on even if they are not used = Piracy. Have the wrong Disk, Box, license, receipt = Piracy. Have 1 copy of MS Office = Piracy * 5; one for each program.
The companies supporting BSA should have a uniform proof of ownership rule. And and easy way to move the license to a new machine. But that would cost THEM Money.
I wonder what their definition of "unlicensed" is. Are they using their definition that unlicensed means you can't find the original invoice for the software? You know, the one where you can have every COA stuck to the case of each machine, but no invoice is considered unlicensed because you can't prove that you didn't buy the licenses after the fact?
Do they consider Open Source code to be unlicensed? Or shareware? Or what?
Are they counting companies that shift licenses around when employees leave and PCs are retired?
I think it's time for the Boy Scouts of America to file suit and get their acronym back.
Yeah, right. You think they want to piss off the BSA? They'll be back to cutting notches in sticks to calculate their finances instead of using software. The BSA can find issues with anyone's accounting of their licenses.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
I don't have anyone in my "foes" or "friends" lists. There have been a whole lot of people I have been sorely tempted to put in my empty "friends" list, but this is the first time I ever gave thought to adding a "foe".
I sincerely hope you're just trolling. First your user name - I was a victim of Sony's rootkit.
Second, and finally on topic, do you realise that you are a narc? A rat? A snitch?
And the worst kind of snitch; one who does it for filthy lucre. Judas. I don't care how bad someone mistreats you, only an evil asshole narcs for pay.
If you had any ethics or morals at all it wouldn't have taken a bad experience to get you to turn them in. You would have turned them in because you thought it was the right thing to do, or more intelligently not at all.
You really should consider just how loathed people like you are. I have no idea how you got modded insightful for stating the obvious, then saying you narced on someone, but it I see the comment you just made while I metamoderate, well, like they say on "My Name Is Earl", karma is a funny thing. Now go crawl back under your rock, troll.
Mods, I'm checking "no karma bonus" but mod me down further if you wish. The parent flamebait really pissed me off and I can easily take a downmodding.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
They are using law enforcement (and therefore public resources) to enforce civil contract and copyright law. That is illegal in many jurisdictions and unethical for most.
One of the articles I had a hard time finding was one that stated that the BSA had armed civilian agents operating in a few places. Either I have a wacky paranoid memory, or my google-fu is weak.
Normally, when a product is sold in a state with a sales tax, the business doing the selling collects the tax and submits it to the state. Is the BSA actually doing that with the money they collect for pirated copies of commercial software? Inquiring minds want to know.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars