Business Software Alliance

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Business Software Alliance logo.

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is a trade group representing a number of the world's largest software makers. It is funded through membership dues based on member company's software revenues, and through settlements from companies it successfully brings action against.

Its principal activity is trying to stop copyright infringement of software produced by its members - an activity it claims to cost the software industry over 11 billion dollars each year.

1 Overview
2 Critique
3 Campaigns
4 Members
5 Related organizations
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Overview

Robert Holleyman is its current president and CEO, the BSA employs a team of over 100 lawyers and investigators, which it uses to prosecute "thousands of cases a year" in conjunction with local law enforcement. The majority of these cases are reported to BSA either through one of its 65 piracy telephone hotlines, or through online report forms. After receiving a tip, BSA then sends the companies a note with an implicit threat of a forthcoming software licensing audit. If the BSA finds cases of software piracy, it assesses heavy monetary penalties. Some companies have switched to free software after having to pay such large fines (see [1], paragraph 7).

BSA has not been reported to support Free Software Foundation or other free software groups in their actions of copyright enforcement. They do support software patents.

[edit] Critique

The BSA enforcement practices against small to medium sized businesses have been the subject of numerous articles. Most recently the BSA has come under fire for offering reward money up to $200,000 to disgruntled employees that report current or former employers for alleged violations of BSA member software licenses. James Gaskin's recent investigative series published in Network World Magazine provides a critique from the small business owner's perspective. http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/sbt/2006/0626networker3.html

BSA has been heavily criticised for its aggressive tactics in forcing small businesses to allow BSA members onto their premises for audits, and for its presumption of guilt until an audit proves one innocent. It is also worthy of note that BSA is an organization founded in the USA, and is currently without official status in most European countries.

They're also well known for lobbying for ENISA, the European Network and Information Security Agency, a suggested network security establishment that would operate within EU. See [2] and [3].

According to a Mother Jones (magazine) article[4], the BSA discovered in 1995 that Antel, the Uruguayan national telephone company, had pirated $100,000 worth of Microsoft, Novell, and Symantec software. The BSA's lawyers in Uruguay quickly filed suit, but dropped the suit in 1997 when Antel signed a "special agreement" with Microsoft to replace all of its software with Microsoft products. This has led to accusations that the BSA is a front for Microsoft, with its other members being enlisted purely to disguise Microsoft's dominant role.

Their estimated losses due to piracy are considered by some to be highly inflated because they are based on the assumption that every piece of pirated software would otherwise be paid for.

[edit] Campaigns

A recent investigative report published by Network World Magazine exposes the dark side of the Business Software Alliance's enforcement campaigns and practices. The article by James Gaskin is titled "Business Software Alliance: Outright Liars or Just Truth Challenged? Don't Expect Fair Play from the Bully Software Alliance." http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/sbt/2006/0626networker3.html

A Business Software Alliance advertising campaign running on Google as of August 16, 2005 read as follows: "BSA - Official Site Earn up to $200,000 for Reporting Pirated Software - All Confidential bsa.org/reportpiracy."

Among the more provocative approaches BSA has taken is the Bust Your Boss! campaign that has appeared on billboards, printed publications and on the Internet with the following suggestion: "Is your current or former employer using pirated software in their office? Hit 'em where it really hurts - report their illegal software use today."

Another recent campaign known as Play It Cyber Safe features an anti-piracy ferret for a mascot. The supposed goal of the campaign is to "educate children about the importance of protecting and respecting copyrighted works". Starting September 1, 2004, children also got to vote on one of five pre-approved names for the ferret.