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[Greg Barniskis]

Chad Leigh -- Shire.Net LLC wrote:
> 
> On Apr 12, 2006, at 10:08 AM, Greg Barniskis wrote:
> 
>> The Business Software Alliance will gladly descend on suspected 
>> violators of any commercial software EULA with a horde of lawyers and 
>> auditors and fines in the 5-6 figure range per violation.
> 
> 
> The business software alliance is not a government agency and cannot 
> levy fines without a court order to enforce them.  And unless they have 
> a court warrant they cannot enter my premises either nor audit any of my 
> machines (not that I have anything to hide, I don't, but people should 
> know their rights)
> 
> IANAL  (IANALAIDPOOTV) and all that

IANAL either, but my understanding is that what BSA asks from the 
legal system, BSA (mostly) gets. Someone else mailed me privately 
that BSA had suffered some significant legal setbacks recently, but 
they are by no means rendered toothless.

There are obviously matters of formality and timing, and (if you've 
pockets deep enough) you obviously retain the right to fight and 
fight and fight against it in court, but the bottom line still seems 
to be that if BSA wants to audit someone's records and systems, they 
will very likely be handed such subpoena paperwork as is needed to 
compel the target's cooperation.

Anyway, this is getting way OT... I'm not on -chat but would 
entertain any other comments off list if mailed directly.

-- 
Greg Barniskis, Computer Systems Integrator
South Central Library System (SCLS)
Library Interchange Network (LINK)
<gregb at scls.lib.wi.us>, (608) 266-6348