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Re: [PLUG] Interesting thread on SEUL-EDU mailing list...
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IANAL
> > They might be able to force an audit via the BSA. I worked for a
> > place once that got sued by the BSA for license violations; it was a
> > long, extended, extremely agrravating 2.5 yrs ...
>
> And how did BSA gather their information about the software being used?
You don't get the advantage of being considered innocent and them having to
prove you guilty (at least not untill you get into court) -- it's in the
software licnese agreements (at least it is nowadays) that you agree to
submit to license auditing. So by virtue of you using the software, you
have made that submission.
Even if the school district is in perfect compliance, just having to go
through the audit will cost them alot of money, just by virtue that they
now have to divert resources to deal with the audit. Which probably
includes system administrators, interruptions of other activities, and
I'm sure it's in their best interest to at least be advised by their lawyers
if not have the lawyers take part in the process just to make sure nothing
is questionable. And, a teacher's home PC gets called into question during
the audit -- but not if they sign the agreement.
> I used to work somewhere that got a letter from BSA about doing some kind
> of audit. I don't remember the details, but they just blew it off and, so
> far as I know, never heard from BSA again.
How much money was really at stake? With a school district with 25,0000
computers, MS stands to extract about a million dollars in revenue annualy
from that school district if the district signs up for the blanket agreement.
A business that has a thasound PCs may or may not be worth pursuing. It
depends on wether they've kept track of their licenses, and wether or
not they've kept tight controll of what gets installed. The BSA probably
sends an initial contact letter out to compaines as a fishing expidition.
If the business responds with questions like "well, how do I know if I'm
compliant?", then the BSA can probably assume guilt and start aggressivly
pursuing them.
This is all my opinion, I probably don't know all of the facts.
Kyle
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