Business Software Alliance

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Logo of the BSA

The BSA | The Software Alliance, Inc. ( BSA ) is an international association of software vendors founded in 1988.

The international non-profit company based in Washington, DC represents its members through lobbying in the areas of copyright and license-compliant software trading. Until 2012 its name was "Business Software Alliance (BSA)".

Worldwide members of the BSA are Adobe , Apple , Autodesk , Avid , Bentley Systems , Borland , Cisco Systems , Corel , CNC Software / Mastercam , HP , IBM , Intel , Internet Security Systems , Intuit , Macromedia , Microsoft , Network Associates , PeopleSoft , RSA Security , SolidWorks , Sybase , Symantec , Trend Micro , Parametric Technology Corporation , UGS PLM Solutions and VERITAS Software .

German members of the BSA are: AttachmateWRQ , Nemetschek , O&O Software and SAP .

activities

A key area of ​​activity is to identify companies that use incorrectly licensed software and to take legal action against them. Since October 2014, it has been promising whistleblowers rewards of up to 10,000 euros in Germany. This announcement met with criticism. According to the information provided by the BSA, more cases could be handled in terms of the investigation and tracking of unlicensed software use in Germany. The total number of computers that were the target of BSA investigation activities rose from 2,900 to over 11,000, according to the BSA's press release. As a result, the law enforcement authorities turned to the BSA in around 400 cases in 2004 (2003: 350). The number of cases closed by the BSA has increased by around 190 percent and is 740 for 2004 (2003: 256).

In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the BSA is headed by Georg Herrnleben , Director Central and Eastern Europe.

Doubts about the strategy of the BSA members

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It is questionable whether this persecution of companies that use incorrectly licensed software actually leads to more sales for the manufacturers of proprietary software. From insider circles we can hear that the uncertainty resulting from the BSA campaigns is leading to a higher acceptance of harmless open source alternatives, especially in small and medium-sized companies. However, the main concern of the industry association is not the marketing of its members, but rather the creation of a legal environment in which the various license models (including open source models, which are represented by some large BSA members such as IBM) compete fairly with one another can kick. The BSA recommends employees of companies that use black copies to blacken them, but never points out that this can be a reason for termination if the employee has not first informed his manager about the illegal use of software in the company.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Business Software Alliance cancels the business . Online at Inside-IT.ch from October 11, 2012.
  2. ↑ Reward for blackening: BSA pays bonuses for reports of illegal software. Retrieved November 19, 2014 .