05.13.09
Gemini version available ♊︎It’s This Time of the Year Again: Time for BSA and IDC to Compare Us to Murderers
Summary: It’s another round of insults and propaganda (‘piracy’ sob story) from Microsoft-commissioned sources
MICROSOFT ET AL ARE doing it again. It is just so very typical. The BSA is pairing up with IDC [1, 2], both of whom are funded by Microsoft to spread such propaganda about ‘piracy’. TechDirt says the truth about the meaning of this (Microsoft sometimes loves this so-called 'piracy'), whereas other publications just parrot the propaganda, which is likely to be pushed into reporters’ mailboxes. Here is an example:
The figures are a result of a survey published by the Business Software Alliance working with the beancounters at IDC. It claims that 61 per cent of the region’s software was unlicensed in 2008, which was an increase from 59 percent in the prior year.
Time after time it’s always the BSA and IDC. Who benefits from this? Who references this? It’s a rhetorical question. There is a tinge of FUD added to such messages at times, usually when they want to introduce new legislation:
OK, let’s forget the spin put on the piracy problem by the usual industry suspects. By which I mean the suggestion that the true cost of piracy is that it helps fund terrorists.
That is just silly nonsense, FUD designed to confuse rather than clarify what has become a growing problem.
In other related new, Apple poses as copyright cop, virtually deciding that everything torrent is to be blindly considered illegitimate.
Apple Rejects iPhone BitTorrent App
[...]
Citing copyright infringement concerns, Apple won’t include a BitTorrent client in the App Store.
The Cupertino-based electronics company rejected Maza Digital’s Drivetrain, saying “this category of applications is often used for the purpose of infringing third-party rights. We have chosen to not publish this type of application to the App Store.”
Apple should also block all Web browsers. After all, HTTP too can be used to… well, transfer files. It’s just a protocol [1, 2, 3]. In the same vein, ISPS that block torrent trackers should also block Google. After all, it’s efficient when it come to… well, finding stuff. █
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Needs Sunlight said,
May 13, 2009 at 9:23 am
It’s common knowledge that MS uses BSA to reinforce its own monopoly. It’s acted as one of MS nastier marketing branches.
http://lwn.net/Comments/45527/
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/1998/01/overseas-invasion
Be sure to keep in mind the distinction that Novell was in practice a different company with the same name prior to Ray Noorda’s sudden death.
IIRC there was some documentation in the early days about how BSA defined “piracy” . It wasn’t about open source / Free Software or closed source. It was about MS / not MS. Not MS == “piracy” as far as BSA is concerned, be it closed or open.
pcolon Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 9:32 am
From comment from http://openbytes.wordpress.com:
The term “pirate” is poorly used, interpreted and gives the illegal trafficker of copyrighted content a non-deserved stigma. The trafficker should be labeled for what he/she is; a thief, nothing more, nothing less. It’s not a violent/traumatic crime.
Pirates are associated more with violent crimes (rape, pillage amongst other crimes) at sea.
The english word “pirate” is derived from the Latin term pirata and that from Greek πειρατής (peirates) “brigand”, ultimately from πεῖρα (peira) “attempt, experience”, implicitly “to find luck on the sea”. The word is also cognate to peril. In 17th and 19th century sources the word is often rendered “pyrate”.
However, the term does not exclusively relate to robbery committed at sea, as other similar origins have a broader definition. The correct definition would be ‘travelers of the sea.’
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 9:39 am
Yes, scroll down to “Making Free Software ‘Illegal’” here.