The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is (according to its own website, http://bsa.org) the "foremost organization dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world", and is "the voice of the world's commercial software industry before governments and in the international marketplace". One has to wonder if it got to be those things other than by merely claiming to be so.

The BSA is responsible for the "NailYourBoss" program that convinced guitar string manufacturer ErnieBall to go open source. 

The BSA is also responsible for the (extremely ridiculous) DontCopyThatFloppy program.

''It's an open secret in the industry that they're simply a Microsoft mouthpiece/catspaw. Pure and simple.''

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These guys are infamous for their hardball tactics. You may have agreed in a SoftwareLicence to be audited in the future to ensure you are in compliance with the licence, and if not you agree to pay penalties plus the full cost of the auditing.

''The BusinessSoftwareAlliance often claims legal authority that it lacks, such as demanding to be able to audit folks (primarily businesses) software collections on short notice.  In the past, some of their communiques to audit targets have left the impression that they are a government agency with broad investigative powers; they're not.''

While that is true, there is enough grey area that if someone refuses an audit, they may be able to get a government agency to investigate you. These guys are true jerks.

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I find it ironic how many programmers hate the BSA, probably for the same reasons that many artists hate the RIAA.

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Ah, the 80s, back when software piracy was killing the software industry, much like how VCRs killed the movie industry and MP3 trading killed the music industry... depending upon which reality you live in.