Flaws In a BSA Software Piracy Report? 288
Ian Lamont writes "The Business Software Alliance has just released its state piracy study (full PDF also available). The BSA says that one in five pieces of software in use in the United States is unlicensed, and notes that piracy rates are highest in Ohio (27%). However, as noted by the Industry Standard, there are problems with the state study, and the way the BSA is presenting the data: the study only includes eight states, and it is making some questionable connections, including the claim that lost state and local tax revenue from piracy would have been enough to 'hire nearly 25,000 experienced police officers.'"
I doubt there are flaws (Score:5, Funny)
because the bsa has really nothing to gain by providing numbers that don't accurately reflect the true situation with regards to the use of unlicensed software.
I just can't imagine how they figured this out (Score:1, Funny)
"Do you pirate software?"
"Yes."
"Okay, thanks. Have a good night."
The more you pirate! the less police there are! (Score:1, Funny)
Everyone get on TPB quick!
BSA/**AA (Score:3, Funny)
Heh heh. I'd like to see what happens when the BSA members are told that online purchases of software will be taxed locally and by the states...
I'll bet their maths for calculating lost state and local tax revenue from pirated software would change.
The other factor being, if people couldn't get the 'free as in beer' copies of that software, they wouldn't pay for a legit copy. But that's been rehashed approximately 6.022 x 10^23 times on slashdot, so I won't go any further.
On a side note, why did the BSA have to break tradition and not use an acronym ending in AA? They've made it much more difficult to lump them into the bin with the MPAA and RIAA. Sigh... BSA/**AA is four too many characters.
Re:Experiences officers? (Score:5, Funny)
What they don't tell you is that those 25.000 cops are Indian and working in India to lower the costs.
Re:Flaw? With the BSA? What a surprise... (Score:5, Funny)
I think it's time for the Boy Scouts of America to file suit and get their acronym back.
Hey, the World Wide Fund for Nature [wikipedia.org] did it...
Re:hmm (Score:5, Funny)
You're forgetting about gritty ex-cops who retired in protest of the widespread corruption in the system, only to take up the badge again one last time when duty called, because they're the best damn cop the state has seen and the only man alive who can get the job done. There are a lot of those.
From future reports (Score:5, Funny)
Not having RTFA or RTFR referred to by TFA, I still have to say I'm amused by the last line in the summary (presumably paraphrasing the report) and its implications to further reports...
"The lost state and local tax revenue from piracy would have been enough to save the lives of HUNDREDS of poor, sick people, assuming they could afford the hospital costs after becoming poor from buying software regulated by our association."
"The lost state and local tax revenue from piracy would have been enough to pay the ransom on this CEO's poor daughter, kidnapped by evil software pirates, and because you selfish greedy bastards had to go and murder her by pirating software, they didn't have the money to pay to get her back! I HATE YOU ALL!"
"The lost state and local tax revenue from piracy would have been enough to save the lives of five hundred innocent kittens from being pulverized in our patented BSA Kitten Pulverizing Machine, whose sole purpose is to abduct and pulverize kittens constantly and whose operations may only be tempered by a continuously-accelerating stream of revenue. Why do you selfish pirates want the kittens to be pulverized? It's all your fault, you know."
Re:hmm (Score:5, Funny)
Re:BSA/**AA (Score:5, Funny)
True, but it does make me think of them as small and blue, which helps.
Re:I just can't imagine how they figured this out (Score:5, Funny)
"Do you pirate software?"
"No."
"Well obviously a filthy pirate like you would lie about it, I'll put you down as a 'Yes'."
Re:Realize this is software used by BUSINESS (Score:3, Funny)
Re:switch to GNU/GPL/FOSS/Linux (Score:3, Funny)
No you fool, didn't you read the summary? If you don't buy commercial software, there will be no police officers! It will be total anarchy! If you want to bring down civilization, then fine, go use your AnarchyWare (tm) aka "Open Source", but don't come crying to me when the rioting starts.
The BSA's point is clear and impeccably reasoned: If you don't pay for commercial software (and lots of it!), we are all going to die. Do you really want to be responsible for that?
Re:ETHICS!! (Score:2, Funny)
What are you lying about?
Who cares about more police officers? (Score:3, Funny)
We need many more mental asylums.
Re:hmm (Score:5, Funny)
Hey man, don't get so worked up! Remember how close you are to retiring!
Re:switch to GNU/GPL/FOSS/Linux (Score:3, Funny)
Re:ETHICS!! (Score:2, Funny)
I swear, I'm going to end up breaking one day, buying a gun, and hunting down the nearest BSA/MAFIAA employee.
Re:Yet another statistic shows (Score:3, Funny)
I'd say that a substantial proportion of the slashdot community opposes piracy, but opposes the methods being employed to combat even more and you seem to be failing to distinguish between the two.
Possibly, but it doesn't seem that way to me. The methods used to combat software piracy seem fairly mild compared to the methods used to combat most other types of crime. The perpetrators are almost never caught (hence the widespread problem) and when they are, the penalties are not that severe. Compare this to drug or prostitution enforcement where people end up in jail for years despite the fast that they have never hurt anyone, financially or otherwise, which you certainly couldn't say about software piracy.
Re:Flaw? With the BSA? What a surprise... (Score:3, Funny)
I believe the parent was referring to the BSA's ability to get the government to come in on its behalf to seize equipment and software and generally intimate you. RIAA, to my knowledge, still relies on using lawyers who, like stormtroopers, can't hit the broadside of a space ship.