BSA deploys imaginary pirate software detector vans

Fearghas McKay fm at st-kilda.org
Thu Nov 9 02:13:26 PST 2000


http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/14562.html
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BSA deploys imaginary pirate software detector vans
By: Kieren McCarthy
Posted: 08/11/2000 at 10:57 GMT

The Business Software Alliance aka The Pirate Busters is growing so
frustrated in its hopeless efforts to cut down on software piracy
that it has decided propaganda and misinformation is the way forward.

Visitors to Glasgow Central Station yesterday were surprised to be
confronted by a Ford Transit van with a small radar and rusty Sky
satellite dish mounted on top. What was this apparition? Why, the
BSA's latest weapon in the war against software-stealing scum.

A wise reader asked one of the "consultants" what exactly the dishes
were able to do and was informed they could detect PCs running
illegal software. When pushed a little further, she admitted the van
was "just a dummy" but the BSA still had a fleet of the real things
rushing around Scotland detecting and nabbing unsuspecting criminals.

Expressing incredulity, things turned nasty and our loyal reader was
threatened. He'd "better watch out" because the BSA with its new
super software-finding equipment will "get him easily". He quickly
ran off and slid into the shadows before he was photographed and his
face wired to Interpol and the CIA.

Can you believe this? This has to be one of the most insane things
we've heard in years. The BSA needs to take a valium and lay down for
a bit. ®

Related Stories
BSA offers £10K bounty to catch software thieves

--- end forwarded text


-- 
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'





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