For the BSA, Somali pirates and software pirates are the same

James Delahunty
14 Apr 2009 18:02

The Business Software Alliance has decided to hijack the "real" cases of piracy that have been highlighted in the mainstream media in the past week for use with its own anti-piracy campaigns. To anybody with half a brain, it is obvious that the same word is used for two totally different things, but it's not so obvious to the BSA apparently.

We've all been following the events of the past week of the pirates off the Horn of Africa. Piracy takes many forms, some more violent than others. I wanted to let you know that the Business Software Alliance is launching a new campaign today "Faces of Internet Piracy" that shows the real-life impact of software piracy...

Those words are from an e-mail sent to Illuminata principal IT advisor Gordon Haff from the BSA. It is quite simply too easy to ridicule, but you can't help but wonder if it is the product of desperation in an extremely tough uphill battle, or just plain ol' stupidity. It could of course just be a joke, but we have heard piracy being put up there with serious crimes in the past, because of the economic damage it could inflict.