BSA releases Internet Piracy Report.

Recently I was put in a position where I was asked to purchase and use pirated software from DELL. The problem was quite simple, a copy of windows 2003 SBS was misplaced. Before you accuse me of being irresponsible, this software was lost before I started working at the company (not to say I am responsible, but this was not my mistake)

Microsoft offers free backup media to anybody, for any reason, via an online form. When I went online I got the response that Microsoft is unable to help me because the OEM I purchased the software from, DELL , was still in business.

When I contacted dell for backup media they gave me two options, 1) Purchase windows 2003 SBS R2, or 2) pirate a copy and comit copyright infringement.

After about 2 weeks, over 30 calls to both Microsoft and dell, I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. I have a legitimate COA, I have the serial numbers, but no media. I almost felt like they were asking me to contribute to piracy. Regardless of if I was licensed to run the software, they wanted me to contribute by paying for pirated software?

I decided to go online and look for a used copy legitimate copy, this is when I found www.ioffer.com.

When something sounds to good to be true, chances are it is. Sites like ioffer let anybody sell anything and under current law, have no responsibility to do much about it.

The BSA recently released a report on internet piracy where it talks about sites like ioffer, and other more known sites like ebay.com. This report also claims some very high numbers on internet (download) piracy. For example, the report says that in some parts of the world, P2P traffic consumes between 49% and 89% of all internet traffic during the day and upto 95% at night

The report also outlines risks of pirated software (both from warez, p2p, and from purchasing it from online retailers). According to a survey conducted by Forrester Research, one in 5 U.S. consumers experienced problems like software not working, found out after the fact they purchased pirated software, 12% never received anything, software having virus’s or tools for remote control , incomplete software, etc.

The report outlines case study’s about ioffer and ebay, and also include case studies about people who run some of these piracy online online retail websites such as Danny Ferrer from www.buyusa.com and others.

You can read the full 22 page report by the BSA by clicking here.

An update to my story about DELL and Microsoft? I ended up finding it in storage, a room we didn’t have access to until recently.

Techdirt has an article titled "A Detailed Explanation Of How The BSA Misleads With Piracy Stats" which doesn't exactly agree with the findings of the study. From the article:

"Today's report is an attempt to get the government involved in protecting BSA member companies' business model, by claiming that the US is losing out on $1.7 billion in tax revenue due to "pirated" software. And, of course, it comes with a lovely quote from Mr. MacBride: "The most tragic aspect is that the lost revenues to tech companies and local governments could be supporting thousands of good jobs and much-needed social services in our communities." And the BSA is even so kind as to quantify what that (not really) lost tax revenue could do: "For example, the lost tax revenues to state and local governments -- an estimated $1.7 billion -- would have been enough to build 100 middle schools or 10,831 affordable housing units; hire 24,395 experienced police officers; or purchase 6,335 propane-powered transit buses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

Except that this is almost entirely incorrect"

You can read the entire 2007 State Piracy Report by clicking here or visiting bsa at bsa.org
To read the article continue here: http://techdirt.com/articles/20080718/1226541724.shtml