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:  

1. 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.
2. 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. 

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Ouch!  A New York-based brokerage company, Euro Brokers, is being sued by IBM for an undisclosed amount for allegedly downloading unlicensed software valued at more than $1.7 million.  According to an InformationWeek article, Euro Brokers was once a legitimate IBM customer, having purchased licenses for Informix database software. But a software audit performed by KPMG revealed that over the course of several years the company had installed additional copies that it hadn’t paid for. 

Here’s the chronology of events as described by IBM in the lawsuit: (more…)

A lot of folks must be rubbing their eyes in disbelief: Microsoft has actually introduced a licensing option that makes life easier for businesses that lease or “rent” Microsoft Windows and Office software to their customers on a per-use basis.  Companies that will theoretically benefit from Microsoft’s new “Rental Rights” include internet cafes, print shops, kiosk companies, and office equipment leasing firms that allow customers to pay a fee to use their machines.  Previously, such companies were required to purchase a Service Provider Licensing Agreement (SPLA), a licensing scheme that can be prohibitively costly and complicated for small businesses.  Evidently (and not surprisingly), the lack of flexible licensing options led to an increased piracy rate among businesses that offer equipment rental services to its customers.  Microsoft first piloted the program in countries where the per capita piracy rate is unusually high, such as Brazil, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Japan, China, Russia, and Thailand. 

According to Eric Ligman, Global Partner Experience Lead with the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group, “Rental Rights licenses are one-time licenses that are valid for the term of the underlying software agreement or the life of the PC.  These rental rights are available as an additive license to Microsoft Open License, Select License, and Select Plus Volume Licensing agreements.”

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[Warning: Those who know me know that I’m somewhat prone to hyperbole; this post is no exception.]

I woke up this morning feeling something like Bill Murray in “Groundhog Day.” On NPR: yet more bad economic news from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. Despite forecasts predicting a December turnaround in the employment market, the economy actually shed another 85,000 jobs. Seriously? Again?

You may recall in the economic downturn of 2001, George Bush famously pleaded for consumers to “go shopping” as a patriotic duty that would help lift the nation out of recession. Well, if, like me, you’re not inclined to go spend your recently decimated nest egg, given the tepid “jobless recovery” that seems to be underway.  But maybe you’re more inclined to spend a little of your company’s money as a patriotic act of economic stimulus known as “software license management.”

Still with me?  If so, hear me out:

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A follow-on to last Friday’s post about the BSA’s recent worldwide study linking software piracy rates with the proliferation of PC malware:

Jeff Williams, principle group program manager for Microsoft’s Malware Protection Center, announced that Microsoft has come out with a report revealing that malware infection rates are directly correlated with the reluctance of those running counterfeit copies of Windows to use Windows Update, the service that pushes OS patches out to PCs.  (Microsoft’s research on malware infection rates was also used to draw similar conclusions in the BSA’s own study.) 

But according to Gregg Keizer of Computer World, Microsoft’s numbers don’t add up.  Here are a couple of excerpts from a column he published on Monday. 

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