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• BSA's tactics overseas are even worse
  We should consider ourselves lucky in the US. I witnessed the BSA's tactics in Latin America about a year ago and they were outright illegal. However, due to an effective disinformation campaign by their local legal representative, they were able to cause enough fear and panic to get people to pay for unnecessary upgrades.
  
  I do not support piracy - the only way programmers can eat and continue to provide quality software is if we're paying for it. (Don't write to me about those few notable exceptions who will never write quality software - we all know who those are) However, the tactics used in this case were to enter businesses with an armed police escort and threaten the general manager with jail if he did not immediately pay (in US dollars, no less - they didn't accept the local currency) a fine which was generally in the $20-50k range. And not surprisingly, many of those businesses targeted were supporters of the political party not then in power.
  
  To the credit of the BSA member companies (and not the BSA itself), once this was raised to their CEOs this practice quickly stopped. However, I still find it offensive that these tactics were used and that education efforts were not implemented to the degree that they should be.
  
  Be thankful if you're in the US, and make sure your licenses are up to date. And if anyone knocks at your door like this, call an attorney before allowing them in. These are just good business practices.

  September 20, 2004

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