11.23.11
Microsoft/BSA Lobbying Based on a Big Lie
Summary: More propaganda from Microsoft and its lobbyists, as well as rebuttals to that
Microsoft front groups like the BSA are using IDC and other so-called ‘analysts’ to manufacture self-serving propaganda. We gave many examples of this in prior years.
IDG (IDC patent company) helps promote this nonsense under the banner of “reporting” or “news”and the language says it all really. This on example goes like this: “Pirated software saves its users in developing countries more than $2.9 billion annually. So finds a study of manufacturers in Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe and Asia-Pacific commissioned by Microsoft. ”
Yes, paid for by Microsoft. As TechDirt points out, Microsoft shot itself in the foot:
Microsoft ‘Anti-Piracy’ Campaign Explains Why It’s Bad For Businesses To Pay For Microsoft Software
[...]
In the distant past, Microsoft used to be willing to admit that — especially in developing countries — the company was significantly better off due to infringement. Bill Gates famously said: “As long as they’re going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.” More recently, of course, Microsoft has been increasingly aggressive when it comes to its anti-piracy campaigns. The company recently did a PR stunt around Global Play Fair Day, in which it released a study, done by Keystone Strategy, which I think is supposed to explain the importance of not infringing. However, the message that it actually seems to be sending is: “paying for Microsoft software is bad for business.”
I’m not joking.
We wrote about the BSA previously, e.g. to explain who was funding SOPA lobbying. The BSA seems to have had unintended effects:
Late last week and over the weekend, supporters of SOPA started pushing a slightly ridiculous idea that a bunch of big tech companies “supported SOPA.” This was based on the fact that the oftentimes extremist organization, the BSA, had come out in favor of SOPA, and a few people chose to believe that meant every member of the BSA — including companies like Apple, Intel and Dell — supported SOPA. The attempt to pretend that Apple must support SOPA was angering a lot of Apple fans, and it appears that something happened behind the scenes.
The BSA has now come out with a blog post “clarifying” its position…
Then again, when they hide behind “BSA”, the paymasters almost manage to hide their participation. █
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mcinsand said,
November 23, 2011 at 1:05 pm
Whenever the topic of the BSA comes up, we need to look to inspirations such as Sterling Ball for how to appropriately respond:
http://www.screaming-penguin.com/node/3251
http://www.ernieball.com/forums/current-events/936-open-source.html
These BSA people are terrorists, in every sense of the word, using fear to force businesses into overpriced lock-in. Just another RICO tactic.
Michael said,
November 23, 2011 at 7:18 pm
The BSA has backed down from their support of SOPA. Since you think they are nothing but a MS front, this means – in your world – MS no longer supports SOPA.
Right?