Newsgroups: alt.flame.macintosh,alt.is.bill.gates.satan,alt.destroy.microsoft,alt.microsoft.sucks Subject: Microsoft Bullies At It Again... From: derekc@spamrat.filler.to.remove.frontiernet.net (Derek Currie) Date: 5 Jan 1998 21:02:14 GMT Web - "Like Coke, Nike, and the tobacco industry before it, Microsoft now has to hook new consumers abroad. But the company has discovered a way to bully foreign companies into buying Microsoft -- and only Microsoft." MacNN has a link to a report on Mother Jones' MojoWire which reveals that an international software piracy watch dog group, Business Software Alliance, has been pushing Microsoft products with violators to escape prosecution. The article claims that when the BSA is heavily funded by Microsoft. When the organization finds a company or government that has pirated software, they file suit it court. The party accused of software piracy has a choice: Either let the law suit continue or switch their software to Microsoft products in which case the matter will go away. The instance sited is a company in Uruguay that was found to have $100,000 in pirated software on their computers. BSA stopped short of a court decision and offered to "work out a deal for the future" with Microsoft. Another instance in Argentina, Novell's manager of security was investigating organizations on their own when they found that the BSA had made exclusive deals with the companies using pirated software. "Companies or government offices had to, as a condition [that the BSA] forgive them of piracy, replace Novell products with Microsoft products," said Felipe Yungman, Novell's manager of security in Argentina. While the BSA is not exclusively funded by Microsoft, other software companies help with funding. Novell and Lotus for one will stop working with the organization in part due to the recent allegations. In light of the accusations, Netscape has become shy of the BSA. Mario Tucci, Novell's country manager for Latin America, supports Yungman's allegations. "If you call BSA, you will reach Microsoft," he says. "They shield Microsoft's actions with the BSA name. It's bad for us and [for] the software industry." Microsoft attorney Brad Smith denies that BSA acts solely on Microsoft's behalf. "I am not aware of any instance where that has happened." The also BSA dismisses the charges. BSA spokeswoman Diane Smiroldo calls the accusations "hard to believe." Source: Mother Jones' MojoWire - MacNN (Link) - =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Brought to you by: Insanely Great Mac All copyrighted information belongs to posted source. Feel free to forward this information to anyone you think may be interested. Subscribe: Subscribe as digest: Unsubscribe: -- Derek Currie, derekc@spamrat.filler.to.remove.frontiernet.net Remains Microsoft-Free Forever!