Just out of curiosity I looked up what the BSA organization was using on its website. Guess what? They are using OpenSource! That's how they avoid audits on the own hardware! :)

http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/?host=www.bsa.org

JLK


>http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/zd/20010730/tc/truce_or_dare_1.html
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>"FOR the BSA and Microsoft campaigns to work, the fear factor is essential, according to letter recipients contacted by eWeek.
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>"[Fear] is the first emotion when you get the letter. It's like, 'Oh my God, the Gestapo's coming,'" said Robert Fuller, president and chief operating officer of R.E. Fuller Engineering Consulting, a one-man company in Camas, Wash.
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>The BSA has struck fear in customers' minds through carefully worded, but threatening letters and an accompanying radio ad blitz warning businesses to beware of disgruntled employees dropping dimes on them.
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>According to the BSA's Kruger, the Truce Campaign is merely a 30-day grace period companies can use to get their software in compliance. If a company does use the time to get in compliance, it will avoid any potential future BSA investigation that may spring up as a result of its radio ad blitz.
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>But that doesn't explain the BSA's use of what many are calling threatening language. What's troubling to businesses, besides not being informed on how they were selected for the mailing list, is the letter's accusatory tone. For example, one line reads: "If you're caught [with unlicensed software], your organization could face penalties totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars."
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>And while Kruger insists the Truce Campaign is not a vehicle for generating leads or tips, that contradicts the thrust of the BSA's radio spots.
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>For example, at one point, the announcer in a radio spot for the Truce Campaign currently running in New York asks Kruger how the BSA receives most of its leads. Kruger responds: "Most of the calls come from current or former employees. I would say to businesses that, unless you have no current or former unhappy employees, you are only one phone call away from becoming the target of a BSA investigation."
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>"My management's concern was that there was almost a bit of paranoia about [the Truce Campaign]," said Peter Rassmussen, a technology manager at a Midwest retailer. "There were radio ads going on at the same time that sounded like Joe Stalin encouraging you to turn in your parents."
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>As for Microsoft, Anderson said, it's not in the company's interest to frighten customers. "We don't want to create anxiety," she said. "It's not our interest."
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>Not surprisingly, however, the hardball tactics are having a negative effect on customers.
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>"We were nailed for tens of thousands of dollars," said Cary White, an IT manager at a financial services company in San Diego who acted on a letter from Microsoft. "We received a letter addressed to our CEO that they received a tip we were not compliant with Windows, Word and Excel. ... That was a fishing expedition."
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>"My company is to completely go away from Microsoft," White said. "We're not going to buy any more Microsoft products. It's my decision. They're alienating their customers. I don't trust them."