Fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) sure is a powerful seller

Summary: The latest FUD campaign and the latest channel/distribution deal from Black Duck, a fake 'friend' of Free/Open Source software (FOSS)

THE Microsoft-connected (in many ways) firm Black Duck continues trying to monetise fear of FOSS -- a fear that it is itself inflaming if not creating in the first place.

Based on this new article, Black Duck's Kevin Bland, sporting a fancy job title for what is essentially a non-technical marketing role, makes some tall tales. He really wants companies to buy Black Duck's proprietary software (with software patents on it).

"Kevin Bland," says the article, "director of channels and alliances at Black Duck, said that developers often used existing code to speed up the process of bringing an app to fruition and there could be vulnerabilities incorporated into the fresh application."

Right, and that never happens when people reuse proprietary software... never. Never ever! Bland's bland spiel continues: "If you wait until launch then it can cost $25,000 per problem to remedy it but if you identify vulnerabilities during the development stage it is about $25 per vulnerability" (wow, no data to back this up, just a magical factor of 1000:1).

Making up the facts as they go along, eh? Here is the marketing announcement about it and something related to that. To quote: "Kilpatrick was speaking as it was announced that Wick Hill has been appointed value added distributor for Black Duck Software in the UK and the DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) region. Black Duck is a US-based worldwide vendor, whose industry-leading products secure and manage Open Source Software, eliminating the pain related to security vulnerabilities, compliance, and operational risk. The company is partnering with Wick Hill as part of its drive to grow sales and expand its reach in the EMEA region."

"f Wick Hill wants to expand, it probably ought to stay out of the snake oil business."So that's what it's all about, sales of proprietary software. Wick Hill is desperate to expand to EMEA based on the latest news and press releases [1, 2, 3, 4], with mergers and acquisitions reportedly likely.

If Wick Hill wants to expand, it probably ought to stay out of the snake oil business. Even companies that are close to Microsoft (Xamarin for sure) have publicly dismissed Black Duck's products as useless. What might Wick Hill attempt to distribute next? Polygraphs, which are based on pseudo-science and are a fraud which only misleading marketing can sell? ⬆