Submission + - BSA Piracy Fight Makes Enemies of Entrepreneurs (google.com)
vaporland writes: "An analysis by The Associated Press reveals that targeting small businesses is lucrative for the Business Software Alliance, the main copyright-enforcement watchdog for such companies as Microsoft, Adobe, Symantec and Apple. For example, BSA claimed that a 10-person architectural firm in Galveston, Texas, was using unlicensed software, and demanded $67,000 — most of one year's profit — or else it would seek more in court.
The AP found that, of the $13 million that the BSA reaped in software violation settlements with North American companies last year, almost 90 percent came from small businesses. The BSA considers software pirated if a receipt cannot be produced, no matter how old it is, and even if a company possesses the original media. MPAA, RIAA take note!
The BSA generally demands at least twice the retail price, charging the "unbundled" price for software that may have originally come bundled with a computer, like Microsoft Office.
Kudos to the AP for uncovering this story (and the story of Comcast's P2P IP "traffic shaping") and explaining it in a way that the common businessman can understand."
The AP found that, of the $13 million that the BSA reaped in software violation settlements with North American companies last year, almost 90 percent came from small businesses. The BSA considers software pirated if a receipt cannot be produced, no matter how old it is, and even if a company possesses the original media. MPAA, RIAA take note!
The BSA generally demands at least twice the retail price, charging the "unbundled" price for software that may have originally come bundled with a computer, like Microsoft Office.
Kudos to the AP for uncovering this story (and the story of Comcast's P2P IP "traffic shaping") and explaining it in a way that the common businessman can understand."
