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Crying Foul At the BSA's "Nauseating" Anti-Piracy Tactics
Barence writes "The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has been accused of heavy-handed tactics that could drive small companies to incriminate themselves. The Microsoft-backed piracy watchdog generates a quarter of its cases by offering employees cash rewards for informing on their own employer. 'It is basically harvesting allegations from disgruntled employees and farming them out to expensive law firms,' one small business owner told PC Pro, who said he was 'nauseated' by the tactics. The BSA then sends out a letter demanding the business owner fill out a software audit, or potentially face court action — even though the BSA has no power to demand such an audit and hasn't pursued a court case in five years. 'It's designed to scare the recipient into thinking that they're obliged to provide certain information when, in fact, it's difficult to see that they are,' said a leading IT lawyer."
One of many, many reasons my small business uses linux.
The Microsoft-backed piracy watchdog generates a quarter of its cases by offering employees cash rewards for informing on their own employer.
I don't like the BSA, and I'm pretty neutral about Microsoft, but what is the point of saying the BSA is "Microsoft-backed"? They're also Adobe-, Apple-, and Dell- backed, among many others.
The BSA then sends out a letter demanding the business owner fill out a software audit, or potentially face court action — even though the BSA has no power to demand such an audit and hasn't pursued a court case in five years. 'It's designed to scare the recipient into thinking that they're obliged to provide certain information when, in fact, it's difficult to see that they are,' said a leading IT lawyer."
We've seen this tactic over and over. Any time someone is trying to make a revenue stream off of anything that can be digitally copied. MPAA, RIAA, BSA. Illegally gather information, pretend you're the police, then extort with the threat of a lawsuit.
It's the system that's broken. That's the bigger problem. The parasites that get fat off the system are a symptom. Fix the system.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
They were sending out this letter years ago. If I got a letter like that, I would send them the following reply:
Dear Mr./Ms. xxxxxxxx:
I am in receipt of your letter dated yyyymmdd. I have reviewed our software and it is all in compliance with the licensing. I would like to invite you to our office but we are too busy to accommodate visitors. Thank you for your concern.
Sincerely,
nbauman
I'm not sure how they would respond. I expect they would either forget about it, send a threatening but bluffing letter, or send a real threatening letter. I wouldn't let them into my premises unless I thought they could back it up with a court order.
The defense would be, "The only person who installed illegal software was the ratxxx disgruntled employee who rattedxxxxxx informed on us to you."
Of course if I really did have a lot of expensive illegal software, I'd check with my lawyer to figure out the most prudent response.
I wonder how they could legally force you to let them investigate.
They might bring a civil suit and force disclosure. Lawyers are extremely reluctant to commit perjury for their clients in discovery.
How is this -not- racketeering? If the mob were behind this, instead of a "legitimate" business, wouldn't the FBI investigate it?
Since you say you're not trolling I'll take you at your word and give you my best answer.
It's not the "what", it's the "how".
The "what" is someone getting fairly paid for their work. Which they have every right to do. Microsoft, the artists represented by the RIAA, everyone. You produce something of value and ask a price for it, you deserve to be paid. Or not be paid if the price is too high. Let the market decide. But either way you deserve to be in that marketplace and not sidestepped illegally.
The "how" is the problem.
What these organizations are doing is criminal. Pretending to be the police is illegal. Threats are illegal. Extortion is illegal. Racketeering is illegal. And lobbying for our rights to be taken away because they diminish their ability to monitor what everyone - guilty and innocent alike - are up to is wrong. The cure is worse than the disease.
To illustrate my point, I'm pretty sure we both would agree that unregistered guns are used in a lot of violent crime. So do you think it would be reasonable to have a local group of concerned citizens search your house looking for some? Hand you some forms demanding you list what weapons you do have, and tell you that if you have any guns that aren't properly registered, you'll be in trouble? Offer bribes to people you know and offer them cash if they can recall seeing you with a gun?
You see, it's not what they are doing but how they are going about it that is the problem.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
MS is hated for good reason: much patent trolling with Android being among the most recent victims, OOXML and file format lock in, Windows Genuine Advantage and Vista's DRM, and the Microsoft Tax to name just a few. And of course the BSA. Their entire attitude is about maintaining a monopoly and controlling and milking their users, not serving them. I really think the only thing keeping MS's empire alive these days is DirectX and PC gaming, and inertia and continuing prejudice against products that are not backed by traditional large corporations. MS has merely displaced IBM among conservative computer users.
Or are you going to try to claim there isn't good reason to hate MS?
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
Microsoft should have paid for that audit. How many man hours did the high school spend on it? Why should we, the taxpayers, pay for this? Those workers are our workers, not MS's workers, and we expect their time to be devoted to the work we hired them for. What's next, are we to frisk all the students to make sure they didn't steal any gum from the neighboring convenience store? Maybe anytime so much as a dry erase marker goes missing, we should lock all the students in the building until the thieving criminal scum who stole it fesses up, returns it, and apologizes to the entire school?
I find it very weird you seem to think this audit was okay. You're even grateful at how nice and sweet it was of MS not to penalize you. Wow, just wow. Would you be okay with your employees popping over to a temp agency to do a little extra work on the side while they are on the clock with you? If a former employee turns you in for some petty violation, are you going to admit you screwed up, and "take your medicine" with a smile because you deserved to be punished? Especially if it's not clear you did anything wrong?
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
You deserve what you get.
It is good to be able to make this statement, but actually make it unless legally required to do so. You would be giving them evidence that they could twist to use against you. Don't give them that (unless advised by a Lawyer).
BSA's way of handling their customers, even potential customers, is totally ridiculous
Customer? Where did you get the idea you are their customer? Autodesk, and Adobe, and Microsoft... THOSE are their customers. You? You are the product they sell.