US government subsidises Business Software Alliance

HEAVILY SUBSIDED TRADE organisation the Business Software Alliance (BSA) has received $200,000 funding from the US government to promote a software piracy scheme aimed at children.

But that has raised questions about why the Justice Department has chipped into the scheme, seeing as the BSA is already subsidised, in fact paid for, to the tune of millions, by some of the richest IT companies in the world.

The BSA site, which can be found here, shows that the BSA is funded by Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Microsoft, Macromedia, Symantec, Network Associates and others.

These software companies support the BSA because software piracy is a real problem which costs the industry many millions a year. We're anti-piracy here at the INQ, having suffered at the hands of such thieves as the People's Daily. But there are many ways to skin a weasel, and we're not sure the weasel is the best way.

In fact the BSA Weasel, pictured above, looks like it's either drugged up or it's about to bite someone's ankle, don't you think?

The kid's scheme - dubbed Playitcybersafe - features a cartoon of a weasel and is aimed at educating kids about software licences, pirated software and computers.

The US Justice Department does have its own scheme, also aimed at children, warning of the dangers and pitfalls on the Internet, so perhaps that's why it's dished out the money to the BSA. But perhaps the BSA -- which on its web site claims to be the foremost organisation dedicated to promoting a safe and legal online world - should have been taking the initiative on this itself, rather than taking US government handouts.

The BSA has already distributed over 35,000 copies of a curriculum for teachers so that they can also educate the kids about software piracy, according to the Washington Post µ

* WHEN YOU awa' to the BSA site, a little pop up appears. What's this all about then?

L'INQs
Weasel Watch
Washington Post