[Infowarrior] - BSA equates software pirates to Somali pirates

[Richard Forno]

BSA equates software pirates to Somali pirates
by Gordon Haff

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13556_3-10217889-61.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20


Some pieces essentially write themselves. This is one of them.

I received the following e-mail this morning with the subject "BSA   
Launches Faces of Piracy Campaign." It came from the Fd.com domain,  
which I assume is the Business Software Alliance's public relations  
firm for this campaign.

     We've all been following the events of the past week of the  
pirates off the Horn of Africa. Piracy takes many forms, some more  
violent than others. I wanted to let you know that the Business  
Software Alliance is launching a new campaign today "Faces of Internet  
Piracy" that shows the real-life impact of software piracy--from  
hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines to jail time. Click on the  
picture below to learn more about the campaign...let me know if you're  
interested in writing about this.

Whatever you may think of the BSA and its tactics in general, this has  
got to be one of the most tone-deaf and cynically opportunistic PR  
pitches I've seen for quite some time.

It's one thing to figuratively equate piracy with making digital  
copies of software, music, movies, or books. We can debate endlessly  
whether such actions are truly stealing or not. But that's not the  
point.

It's that to literally and deliberately equate the two in the wake of  
pirates taking a ship's crew hostage and the US Navy subsequently  
killing three of the attackers...Well, words fail me.