Why the BSA Is Less Reviled Than the RIAA

Hugh Pickens writes "The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is a trade group established in 1988 representing a number of the world's largest software makers whose principal activity is trying to stop copyright infringement of software produced by its members, performing roughly the same function for the software industry that the RIAA performs for the music industry. Yet, as Bill Patry, author of a 7-volume treatise on US copyright law and currently Senior Copyright Counsel at Google, notes on his blog the BSA is a 'far less unpopular organization' than the RIAA because there are three key differences between the BSA's campaigns and the RIAA's. First, BSA's members have always offered their products for sale to the public, through any channel that wants to sell them. Second, BSA's members are consumer-oriented; they try to develop products that respond to consumers' needs, and not, the reverse: focusing on what they want to sell to consumers. Third, because consumers can easily purchase BSA's members products, those who copy without paying are simply scofflaws. 'I think the fact that the public does not object to BSA's campaign proves my point [that]... people do not want things for free; they are willing to pay for them,' writes Patry. 'It should not be surprising that when consumers are not treated with respect, they react negatively. That's something the software industry learned long ago, and that's why people don't object to the BSA's enforcement campaign.'"

Comments

Re:False assumptions?

[russotto]

If the RIAA/MPAA is so reviled - why is it that "the jury of his peers" hammers the file sharer into the ground when these cases go to trial?

Because the case was already decided in the preliminary motions and the jury selection. Not to mention the RIAA/MPAA purchase of the laws in the first place.

Next on BBC 4:

[WheelDweller]

Famous deathsquads. We'll compare them to stormtroopers from other people and other parts of time...

Sorry guys, I just can't give the BSA any more resepct than I do. Maybe I've been paying too much attention as they leave small businesses in shambles, and relieved of 100.000 each time.

It's kinda like comparing the Waffen SS with the General SS. So there's this slight difference....so what?