New BSA bid to scupper pirates is 'over the top'
THE Business Software Alliance (BSA) is clearly taking no prisoners in the battle to stop the sale of pirated copies of software owned by its member companies, such as Microsoft, Lotus, Symantec and other big names in the industry.
It has been writing to all Government departments with the power to cause pain to the businesses involved in selling pirated software products, including the Inland Revenue Department.
But last week the BSA crossed the fine line between the serious and the hilarious with its attempt to bring in the Fire Services Department to close down the shops the BSA believes are selling pirated goods because they are 'fire traps'.
This really is a bit much. The responsibility for intellectual property violations is taken by the Intellectual Property and Customs and Excise Departments.
Any other body can, of course, act on complaints and this is what the BSA is apparently hoping for.
But in calling on other departments to take action, the BSA risks hitting other businesses not involved in the illegal software business.
The BSA does not claim to be acting in the interests of public safety in trying to shut these businesses down, so one has to ask: 'What next?' The BSA has been pushing for some time for the Government to set up a cross-departmental anti-piracy body, but the Government has ruled this out.
Its attempts to hit back at the illegal software business have begun to make the BSA look like it is clutching at straws. (See Page 4.)WE knew personal computer companies were operating on fairly low margins these days, but we did not think things were so bad that they would not be able to afford professional public relations or marketing people - at least people with a working knowledge of the language of the press men and women they were trying to sell their stories to.
There has been a noticeable increase in the number of invitations and press releases sent out recently that are written in what would take a pretty long stretch of the imagination to describe as English.
We won't mention any names, but take one that came in last week from a fairly well-known PC company inviting us to attend a press conference about its new links with a local soccer team.
Not only were we somewhat hard pressed to find a technology story about a Peruvian forward, but it took several reads of the preceding paragraphs to even get that far.
It is not often that professional PR people get listed by stressed-out journalists much higher on the food chain than lawyers, insurance salesmen and amoebas - until these journalists join the PR business, that is - but they do have their uses.
Some computer companies would do well to consult them occasionally.
But then again, maybe we tell a lie.
The particular invitation mentioned above WAS sent out by a PR firm.
God help us all!WE bumped into a fellow technology journalist at an Internet conference last week and during the course of a brief conversation were informed that 'The Rat' was back in Hong Kong, but that instead being involved in magazine publishing, he had moved into the PR business.
We are sure we have no idea who was being referred to here, but if he is called The Rat, he should do reasonably well in this town.
There's plenty of fodder for scavengers around.
