Business Software Alliance

[boomerang]

My wife received a letter at the business she manages from these people telling her they are declaring a 30 day truce for businesses in her area.

They claim to represent Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Bentley Systems, CNC Software/Mastercam, Macromedia, Microsoft, Symantec and UGS.


Evidently, if your software is not fully licensed, they can impose penalties. You have 30 days to get legal or the stormtroopers rush in, I guess.

They have a website, www.bsa.org and everything appears to be legit. Anyone have any first hand knowledge of this outfit?

 

[Nimloth]

yea, my company received a 30-day truce about 60 days ago... we tried getting clean (legal that is) but we still have a sh!tload of unlicensed software... it's waiting game now...

 

[miniMUNCH]

Ya...don't screw with them. Get legal. They will take the piss out of your company in a hurry if your liscense's don't add up to your number of users/copies....blah, blah.

I honestly hope they start going after individuals as well in the "sometime" future. It ain't right having some people throwing down a wad of cash for software to pay for the theft of others.

If you can't pay for it then show some respect and do without it. If you really got to have it then finance it with the company or on a credit card.

It's funny how many people don't give a thought to stealing software; to me it is the same as stealing a car, or money, or jewelry, etc. A lot of people worked hard to make that software; stealing it instead of paying for it could put people out of jobs.

 

[ECN]

BSA can suck my **** they sent it to very business owner in USA, they have no right to enter your store and check except if they have a warrant which they dont all they are doing is trying to make suckers nervous, BSA if your readin this come to my house and try to touch my computer ill kill you nerds on spot, f00

 

[Double Trouble]

They've been trying these strong-arm intimidation practices for a while -- including with the company I work for, and my employer basically told them to take a long walk of a short peer. Haven't heard from them yet.

<<It's funny how many people don't give a thought to stealing software; to me it is the same as stealing a car, or money, or jewelry, etc.>>

No, it is NOT the same, at least not from a moral standpoint. From a legal standpoint, yes, it's theft. From a moral standpoint, it's different because by using the software, I'm not depriving someone else the opportunity to use it (unlike with tangible goods). There is no incremental cost to a copy of the software for the developer.

If I had planned to purchase the software, and then decided not to because I could pirate it, THEN there would be revenue lost to the developer. If, however, I would never purchase the software anyway, then whether I use the software or not does not impact the revenue (and the jobs) of developers.

I'm not rationalizing the behavior, nor am I saying it's &quot;right&quot;, I'm simply pointing out a fact. It's still legally wrong, but morally most people do not find it wrong, which is why it's so common.

 

[boomerang]

They're saying they want both licenses and receipts. I can just imagine my wife trying to find the receipts. If I go over there to do some work on the computers, just my asking for the Windows CD will start a 15 minute search
mission. She'll never find the receipts.

Can they enter your business? What kind of powers do they actually have , or is this more of a scare tactic.

They have a Washington DC address, which makes you think they have some type of association with the government. I would assume they have this address purposefully.