[linux-audio-user] Slightly OT

[Jan "Evil Twin" Depner]

If I were running a large company I'd start moving now.  If that's what
you get for 8 unlicensed copies I'd hate to see what would happen with
500.

Jan

On Sun, 2003-03-02 at 05:38, Darren Landrum wrote:
> I remember reading about this some time ago.
> 
> The BSA is running into a very interesting problem: Their heavy-handed
> tactics are driving customers away. Basically, they got their $90K out of
> Ernie Ball, and went away short-term happy, so Sterling decided to make
> their long term numbers suffer.
> Anyone want to start a betting pool on the next company to switch to
> Free/Open Software due to the BSA?
> The thing is, though, is that Ernie Ball is a relatviely small company,
> and making a complete switch (almost literally overnight) was not that
> difficult for them. Now what would happen if, say, HP got hit by millions
> in fines from the BSA (other than more layoffs...)? They wouldn't have the
> ready option of switching because they are too big of a company.
> Since most music companies are smaller (Yamaha being a notable exception),
> I wonder if any others have plans to follow suit just to avoid an audit...
> Anyone know?
> 
> -- Darren
> 
> 
> >Jan \Evil Twin\ Depner
> > 	I know that there are quite a few musicians on this list so I thought
> > they might be interested in this (if they didn't already know about
> > it).
> >
> > 	I was reading an article yesterday (I don't remember where) that was
> > talking about the BSA fining businesses for unlicensed software.  Lo
> > and behold, the first business cited (for 8 unlicensed copies of M$)
> > was Ernie Ball/Music Man.  Apparently they got stung for $90,000.00 US.
> >  The article stated that Ernie Ball immediately switched to "open
> > source" and never looked back.  Being a curious person, I sent an email
> > to Ernie Ball to find out what "open source" meant.  The answer is Red
> > Hat
> > Linux.  It's nice to see a fairly large music business getting the
> > message.
> >
> > 	It appears that the BSA may be one of open source's biggest allies.
> >
> >
> > Jan
> 
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Darren Landrum
> 
>