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US Military Settles Software Piracy Claims For $50M
Rambo Tribble writes "The BBC reports that the U. S. government has agreed to pay software maker Apptricity $50 million to settle claims that the U.S. Army pirated thousands of copies of the firm's provisioning software. The report indicates 500 licensed copies were sold, but it came to light an army official had mentioned that 'thousands' of devices were running the software." $50 million in tax money could have paid for a whole lot of open source software development, instead.
$50 million could have paid for a whole lot of private sector open source software development.
If the military had spent the money on development, they might have finished the request for proposals before running out of funding...
it could have also paid for the software... and probably be a lot cheaper then $50 million on open source...
I only say this because there is an obvious 'zomg go open source' vibe to the post... Obviously, it would be nice id governments threw money at open source software development, but then o then taxpayers would probably complain since it doesn't directly benefit them in a way their minds can comprehend
According to court documents filed in 2012, the deal with the military meant up to 500 named users could access the software.
Apptricity later estimated that 9,000 users were accessing the program, in addition to the 500 that had been paid for.
The unauthorised copying only came to light after a US Army official mentioned "thousands" of devices running the software during a presentation on technology.
Well there's your problem right there!
One might have assumed a BSA sting except, well, it's the gub'ment.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
This submitter has the typical Slashdot FOSS douchebag attitude. This case has NOTHING TO DO with open source software, yet you can always find a way to jam it in there eh?
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits" - Albert Einstein
$50 million in tax money could have paid for a whole lot of open source software development, instead.
Bullshit. A government designed website cost over $600 million, for $50 million you only get the committee that argues about the design, and only for a year or so.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
$50 million in tax money could have paid for a whole lot of open source software development, instead.
How would that not be spending tax dollars to compete with private industry? What kind of an ass backwards priority system does this poster have? Take money away from honest citizens at gun point and give this money to their competition? How is this even remotely ethical?
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Its the government, what did you expect :P Government does everything in way its most expensive as possible.
There appears to be no clear boundary between "the website" and "related IT services" such that it's hard to draw an undisputed line. Estimates range from roughly $130 to $350 million, depending on the partitioning used. Left-leaning spinners seem to use the $130 figure and right-leaning spinners use the 350. Because the boundary is fuzzy, neither side is objectively wrong. Funny how that works.
More info:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2013/10/24/how-much-did-healthcare-gov-cost/
Table-ized A.I.
This company should have hired the RIAA's lawyers...
$50 million in tax money could have paid for a whole lot of open source software development, instead.
Maybe, but then again maybe they needed something that works today, so funding development of something that will work in two years simply wasn't an option? Not everything in this world is a conspiracy, you know?
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Most likely what happened is the US Military bought the software, which may or may not be the best solution but clearly it was the most viable software solution available suited for the specific needs of modern arm forces logistics. Then what happened is the user seat requirements outstripped the original purchase numbers. BECAUSE THE FRIGGIN' SOFTWARE is written on a per seat basis and most likely a timed rental lease. And this is why the distribution became a warez situation.
EVERYBODY wants to pull a Microsoft and create something that becomes a cash cow that feeds them beyond the actual value of the original creation, is timed to expire and cause the users to send more cash.
Now we complicate the situation with the recent cutbacks in military funding for procurement of frills like this software. Someone with a hand on the accounting made the decision that increasing the site license numbers was not financially justified. This in turn caused the military IT person(s) responsible for deployment of this software to but heads with staff that was lower down than the pencil necks that cut their procurement budgets. So most likely some Colonel somewhere reamed out the poor IT staff so bad about not having the rights to deploy more copies without the budget that they just turned a blind eye and handed out copies instead of facing some Colonel Blowhard every time Lieutenant Hothead complained about the IT department not letting them accomplish their mission.
This message was not sent from an iPhone because Peter Sellers really was a deviated prevert without a dime for the call
Random teenager downloads enough music CDs to fill his iPod -> millions in damage representing the sum of the full price of each song
US government downloads software on more devices it's licensed to -> get's a 90% discount in the fine and not even a warning
Seriously. Does the OP of the summary really not understand that open source != free? Publishing the source code has nothing to do with licensing. If the military had paid for 500 copies of open source software and installed it on thousands of machines, they would STILL BE PIRATING IT.
$50 million in tax money could have paid for a whole lot of open source software development
I'm a staunch advocate of open source software, but for military applications? Would it be wise to share your military's tools with every other country on the planet? Would that not be assisting your enemies?
Apptricity later estimated that 9,000 users were accessing the program, in addition to the 500 that had been paid for.
This is equivalent to Microsoft claiming you pirated windows server, because you only bought 500 CALs, but your organization has 9000 employees.
Through some bit of magic, they say you get this license thingie, that you have to permanently assign to a specific piece of flesh and blood ---- no matter how many computers you have running the software; or how many employees you have on the job at a particular moment -- you don't count those: you count the total number of people your organization hired.
50 million divided by 8500 is close to $6000 per employee.
I would call that predatory + difficult to comply with licensing, not "piracy" --- the folks making out like bandits here is the software company.
I'm sure a fraction of the 50 million could have funded a contractor to build the product, and provide the military the rights to the software --- and unlimited, perpetual licenses.
Yeah, but ain't FreeBSD & NetBSD very much American still? The FreeBSD foundation is based in CO, while NetBSD is incorporated in DE.