[ Thanks to Francesco Marchetti-Stasi
for this report: ]
A short update on the
BSA campaign in Italy and the related suit. Paolo Semenzato, a
Green senator well known for his
attention to the political and legal aspects of Internet, presented
a new suit against BSA. The senator declared that “the law
approved in August allows softare duplication for private use: this
is not considered a crime, therefore the message coming from major
software houses (sic) is to be considered
untrustworthy”.
It is very interesting to compare this declaration with a few
excerpts from an interview
given to “Punto
Informatico” by the Italian representative of BSA, Paolo
Ardemagni:
“… we had the opportunity to transmit a message in 20
seconds only. A very short time, during which we managed to give
the message of what the new law represents…”
“[The suits] are overreactive, the new law already contains
the answers to the questions which are asked therein…”
“As BSA, we represent 95% of the software currently used in
business.” [He didn’t mention what is the percentage
represented my M$…]
[One of the best, IMHO:]
“Q: Are you sure that people buying a pirated software at a
ridiculous price would also buy it at its full price?
A: I think the question should be reversed. If software piracy did
not exist, wouldn’t the firms needing it be forced to buy it at its
real price?”
Unfortunately, the author of the interview didn’t think of
asking why BSA is using free software on their site…