Summary: The BSA is losing key members, so there is some explaining to do

THE Business Software Alliance (BSA) has become known to many as Microsoft's private police force, which Microsoft pays a lot of money to distance itself from the bad reputation associated with lawsuits and crackdowns.

There must be something rather serious going on at the BSA, which since 2008 at the very least has also become a lobbying body, arguing for example for software patents inside European standards. This ought to have made the BSA rather unpopular and indeed, by comparing the BSA member list of 2008 and 2010 we find that 2008 members ("Member Spotlight" is Microsoft) are rather different from today's (2010/2011) members and "Member Spotlight" is still Microsoft.

What exactly are the differences? Well, new members are: Altium, AutoForm, AVEVA, AVG, Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corporation, Intuit, Kaspersky, Minitab, Progress Software, and Stone Bond Technologies.

“Previously, IBM also quit supporting CompTIA, which had devolved into some kind of Microsoft front group.”Lost members are: AVID, Borland, Cisco Systems, EMC Corporation, IBM, HP, Monotype Imaging, SAP, SolidWorks, Synopsy, and TeleAtlas.

Upon closer inspection, some of these companies just got bought or simply don't exist anymore. However, when giants like EMC, IBM, HP, and SAP decide to leave, there is something rather conspicuous. Francisco Mingorance has something to explain here. Previously, IBM also quit supporting CompTIA, which had devolved into some kind of Microsoft front group. ⬆