Should Open Source Publishers Get On The BSA Bandwagon?
An article featured in a South Africa technology portal popped up in one of my feeds today, and I couldn’t help but take the bait. The column, entitled “Open Source Against Piracy,” contends that open source software developers should consider becoming members of the BSA. As I best understand it, the reasons given are twofold:
- The BSA perpetuates a belief that anyone who copies or gives away software is a pirate; open source developers, as BSA members, could persuade the organization to change its definition of piracy and ensure the terms of FOSS agreements are being upheld.
- Users pirate software not because they are “criminals” but because the software they wish to use is cost-prohibitive; if producers of open source software can convince the BSA to be more aggressive in their pursuit of software pirates, illegal users will flock to free open source alternatives.
Frankly, I find these arguments rather curious and a bit thin on logic. First, the goal of persuading the BSA to conduct audits and enforce open source license agreements would be nothing short of futile, given the relative permissiveness of open source EULAs, the characteristic lack of paper trail, the absence of financial motivation, and the difficulty determining where, when, and by whom violations have occurred. How would the BSA even begin compiling its list of targets? It’s not that the BSA doesn’t understand the fundamental difference between commercial and open source EULAs, as the author claims—it’s simply that the entity isn’t set up or, perhaps more importantly, intended to enforce the latter.




