Ramblings, opinions, and general meanderings from the Deep South

Saturday, January 08, 2005

What if Hitler and a vampire had children?

Do you own a small business? Do you use computers in this business? Then you need to read the rest of this article and realize the potential of your business being closed down because there are some nazi like organizations after you. Shades of Big Brother? This is not paranoia, just information that you need.

Enter the BSA. The Business Software Alliance is a group that randomly goes around checking to see if your software is licensed properly. What provoked this expose is an article over at ArsTechnica by Caesar Fisher. Okay, this article won't scare you that much. Just plain to the point reporting as Caesar and the ArsTechnica people always do when informing us of important issues. Good site. But the next piece of info should scare the holy s--- out of ANY person in business that has not addressed this issue before now.

First published in August of 2003 this tells about the grim adventures of a business owner and his unfortunate dance with the BSA. Check out Rockin' on without Microsoft. Ahhhhh, you're back after reading that little ditty and possibly quivering because you don't exactly know what you have in the way of Windows and other software? My money says this has now become ULTRA important on your list of things to do - find out if all your software is straight up and not hinky in any way. Remember this, you are to have an individual licensed piece of software for each and every computer unless otherwise specified and that doesn't mean just hiding in a drawer or filing cabinet. It better be on its respective computer. Yes, you can buy extended license privileges from people like Microsoft so on and so forth.

Frightening? Hope so. Personally, I think ALL software should be open source and not for sale. But, this is the real world and that just won't happen. In the mean time keep these Hitlerites out of your business and away from the door by being legal. Then consider alternative Operating Systems and platforms. Why do you think my links list is all about freeware? Going to find out about your PCs? Good. Now if we can just find a way to rid society of all these pigs like the BSA, RIAA, spyware jerks, and other terrorists...

"The weak are the most treacherous of us all. They come to the strong and drain them. They are bottomless. They are insatiable. They are always parched and always bitter. They are everyone's concern and like vampires they suck our life's blood."
-Bette Davis

No comments: