Business Software Alliance

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The Business Software Alliance logo.

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is a trade group established in 1988 and representing a number of the world's largest software makers. Its principal activity is trying to stop copyright infringement of software produced by its members—an activity it claims, using a lost sales metric, to cost the software industry over US$11 billion each year.

It is funded through membership dues based on member company's software revenues, and through settlements from companies it successfully brings action against.

1 Overview
2 Critique
- 2.1 BSA annual software piracy study
3 Campaigns
4 Members
5 Related organizations
6 See also
7 Notes
8 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. Most notably was guitar accessory manufacturer Ernie Ball, who settled with the BSA for $90,000. After the settlement CEO Sterling Ball vowed never to use Microsoft software again, saying "I don't care if we have to buy 10,000 abacuses...We won't do business with someone who treats us poorly."^[1] Additionally Michael Gaertner, the head of a small architectural firm in Galveston, Texas, wants to rid himself of the software involved in the suit, saying "It's not like they have really good software. It's just that it's widespread and it's commonly used. It's going to be a while, but eventually, we plan to get completely disengaged from those software vendors that participate in the BSA."^[2]

[edit] Critique

The BSA enforcement practices against small to medium sized businesses have been the subject of numerous articles.^[3] Most recently the BSA has come under fire for offering reward money up to US$200,000 to disgruntled employees that report current or former employers for alleged violations of BSA member software licenses. James Gaskin's June 2006 investigative series published in Network World Magazine provides a critique from the small business owner's perspective.^[4]

BSA has been heavily criticized 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. The 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 the creation of ENISA, the European Network and Information Security Agency, a network security establishment that operates within the EU (since 2004).^[5]

According to an article in Mother Jones magazine,^[6] the BSA discovered in 1995 that Antel, the Uruguayan national telephone company, had pirated US$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.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] BSA annual software piracy study

BSA has been heavily criticized about the yearly study it publishes about copyright infringement of software. This study, produced in collaboration with the International Data Corporation, tries to estimate the level of copyright infringement of software in different countries, as well as the resulting losses for the software industry.^[7] The methodology consists in estimating the number of computers shipped in a given country, as well as the average quantity of software installed on these machines. Separately, an estimation of the quantity of legitimate software sold in the country is produced, and the difference between the total amount of software estimated to be in use in the country and the estimation of software sold is used as an indicator of the rate of unauthorized copy. A estimation of the total amount lost is produced by multiplying the estimator number of unauthorized copies by the price of the original software.

These estimates have been criticized as being exaggerated and many flaws of the methodology have been pointed out; some of the figures seem to be guesses rather than solid data, and some data may not be representative. The calculation of the losses, in particular, assumes that each piece of copied software represents a direct loss of sale for software companies, a very contested assumption.^[8] In fact, the assertion is provably false. For it to be true, demand has to be totally independent of price. But if it were, everyone would pay for the software, to avoid the prosecution risk. So the piracy rate would be 0%. Since it isn't, it proves the original assumption (that every pirated copy is a lost sale) is wrong. The study's assumptions have been described as being unworthy of a first year student of statistics.^[9] In Australia, a draft government report has described these statistics as a "self-serving hyperbole", "unverified and epistemologically unreliable".^[10]

These criticisms have been aggravated by the use of the BSA study to lobby for new, stricter copyright laws and to seek tougher penalties for people convicted of copyright infringement on software; in Britain, a judge cited the data provided by the BSA to justify a lengthy prison sentence for two people convicted of copyright infringement.^[8]

Other studies published by the BSA, such as a study claiming that software patents are of the same importance to small and medium enterprises and large companies, have also been described as misleading and as using a flawed methodology, but the results have nevertheless been quoted by politicians.^[11]

[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."^[4]

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.