BSA Accuses OpenOffice Mirrors
Rick
cybear
What's this "we will try and fix the search terms"? I hope they do more than
TRY. Hell, they would not have to _try_ very hard to say they tried. I
would expect them to FIX the problem. Harassing innocent people is BS.
Paul Cooke
it's absolutely hilarious...
------------------------------------------------
Dear Mrs. Suarez-Potts,
I apologize for the obvious mistake I made.
Apparently our system detects the OpenOffice files as MS Office programs
and
alarms me, which in turn sends the notices. I failed my part by not
reassuring clearly enough which property was infringed and now that I am
aware of that fact we will try and fix the search terms of our system and
of
course be more aware of the possible mistake.
Thank you very much for your e-mail.
Sincerely,
Corinna Beck
------------------------------------------------
this is what they flagged up
>> What was located as infringing content:
>> ------------------------------
>> Filename: /mandrake_current/SRPMS/OpenOffice.org-1.0.1-9mdk.src.rpm
>> (199,643kb)
>> Filename:
>> /mandrake_current/i586/Mandrake/RPMS/OpenOffice.org-libs-1.0.1-
>> 9mdk.i586.rpm
>> (35,444kb)
>>
>> The above computer program(s) is/are being made available for copying,
>> through downloading, at the above location without authorization from
>> the
>> copyright owner(s).
>>
>> Based upon BSA's representation of the copyright owners in anti-piracy
>> matters, we have a good faith belief that none of the materials or
>> activities listed above have been authorized by the rightholders, their
>> agents, or the law. BSA represents that the information in this
>> notification is accurate and states, under penalty of perjury, that it
>> is
>> authorized to act in this matter on behalf of the copyright owners
>> listed
>> above.
they've also got tough with a spectrum games archive site because one or
more of the games titles matched their search strings.
Basically they're buffoons but they've got to be carefully watched.
If you do run an ftp site that has "infringing content", then be prepared
for an email from them. It seems that their web crawler is pretty thorough
and persistent...
--
Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/
Get it while it's hot... :)
Paul Cooke
Registered Linux user 273897 Machine registration number 156819
Paul Cooke
I wonder when EasyOffice will get an email...
cybear
> Basically they're buffoons but they've got to be carefully watched.
>
> If you do run an ftp site that has "infringing content", then be prepared
> for an email from them. It seems that their web crawler is pretty thorough
> and persistent...
>
And screwed up.
cybear
> On Fri, 28 Feb 2003 17:41:15 GMT, cybear <cyb...@pacbell.net> wrote:
>
>> Rick wrote:
>>
>>> Very interesting:
>>>
>>> http://slashdot.org/
>>>
>>
<http://distribution.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?msgId=581265&listName=dev>
>>
>> What's this "we will try and fix the search terms"? I hope they do more
>> than TRY. Hell, they would not have to _try_ very hard to say they tried.
>> I would expect them to FIX the problem. Harassing innocent people is BS.
>
> I wonder when EasyOffice will get an email...
>
What makes you so sure they have not?
Dave Leigh
<j27v5v4kgj2272gh9...@4ax.com>:
> Very interesting:
>
> http://slashdot.org/
>
<http://distribution.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?msgId=581265&listName=dev>
From the BSA's harrassing email:
>> Based upon BSA's representation of the copyright owners in anti-piracy
>> matters, we have a good faith belief that none of the materials or
>> activities listed above have been authorized by the rightholders, their
>> agents, or the law. BSA represents that the information in this
>> notification is accurate and states, under penalty of perjury, that it is
>> authorized to act in this matter on behalf of the copyright owners listed
>> above.
Except that the activies of the mirror HAVE been authorized by the
rightholders and the BSA are NOT authorized to act in the matter,
affermation "under penalty of perjury" notwithstanding. Good thing this was
just a notification and the BSA didn't threaten legal action. It's
weasel-worded to avoid libel, but that doesn't help their credibility.
--
Dave Leigh, Consulting Systems Analyst
Cratchit.org
cybear
Hmmm, do you think Sun may have a law suite?
Dave Leigh
<3HO7a.417$ha5.29...@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com>:
No.
Linønut
> <http://distribution.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?msgId=581265&listName=dev>
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has determined that the
connection listed below, which appears to be using an Internet
account under your control, is operating an FTP server to offer
unlicensed copies or is engaged in other unauthorized activities
relating to copyrighted computer programs published by the BSA's
member companies.
Infringement Details:
------------------------------
First Found: 24 Nov 2002 15:31:40 EST (GMT -500)
Last Found: 24 Feb 2003 01:19:59 EST (GMT -500)
IP Address: 128.176.191.21
IP Port: 21
Protocol: FTP
FTP Login Name: anonymous
FTP Login Password: gu...@nowhere.com
What was located as infringing content:
------------------------------
Filename: /mandrake_current/SRPMS/OpenOffice.org-1.0.1-9mdk.src.rpm
(199,643kb)
Filename:
/mandrake_current/i586/Mandrake/RPMS/OpenOffice.org-libs-1.0.1-9mdk.i586.rpm
(35,444kb)
The above computer program(s) is/are being made available for
copying, through downloading, at the above location without
authorization from the copyright owner(s).
Based upon BSA's representation of the copyright owners in
anti-piracy matters, we have a good faith belief that none of the
materials or activities listed above have been authorized by the
rightholders, their agents, or the law. BSA represents that the
information in this notification is accurate and states, under
penalty of perjury, that it is authorized to act in this matter on
behalf of the copyright owners listed above.
We hereby give notice of these activities to you and request that
you take expeditious action to remove or disable access to the
materials described above, and thereby prevent the illegal
reproduction and distribution of pirated software via your company's
network. As you know, illegal on-line activities can result in 50
million people on the Internet accessing and downloading a
copyrighted product worldwide without authorization - a highly
damaging activity for the copyright holder.
We appreciate your cooperation in this matter. Please advise us
regarding what actions you take.
Please include the following CaseID in any response you send: Case
ID 588853
Yours sincerely,
Corinna Beck
Business Software Alliance
1150 18th St NW Suite 700
Washington,DC 20036
http://www.bsa.org
E-mail: copyrigh...@bsa.org
--
OpenOffice is being pecked to death by the BSA.
Dave Leigh
<y7udnaFJT55...@comcast.com>:
snipped quote of the BSA message. Here's the link, though:
<http://distribution.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?msgId=581265&listName=dev>
Yep, that was the message. I was asked if I thought Sun had [grounds for] a
lawsuit. I answered no. Here's why:
> The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has determined that the
> connection listed below, which appears to be using an Internet
> account under your control, is operating an FTP server to offer
> unlicensed copies or is engaged in other unauthorized activities
> relating to copyrighted computer programs published by the BSA's
> member companies.
1. It's not a flat-out accusation, even though it contains the phrase, "is
operating."
a. It states that the connection "appears to be" under $RECIPIENT control.
Therefore even if there were a violation, they don't state that it's
$RECIPIENT doing the violating.
b. It states that the BSA "has determined" that unauthorized activities
are taking place. This introduces the possibility of an error on the BSA's
part, made in good faith.
> Infringement Details:
> ------------------------------
> First Found: 24 Nov 2002 15:31:40 EST (GMT -500)
> Last Found: 24 Feb 2003 01:19:59 EST (GMT -500)
> IP Address: 128.176.191.21
> IP Port: 21
> Protocol: FTP
> FTP Login Name: anonymous
> FTP Login Password: gu...@nowhere.com
>
> What was located as infringing content:
> ------------------------------
> Filename: /mandrake_current/SRPMS/OpenOffice.org-1.0.1-9mdk.src.rpm
> (199,643kb)
> Filename:
>
/mandrake_current/i586/Mandrake/RPMS/OpenOffice.org-libs-1.0.1-9mdk.i586.rpm
> (35,444kb)
>
> The above computer program(s) is/are being made available for
> copying, through downloading, at the above location without
> authorization from the copyright owner(s).
3. This statement is made in error. Taken out of context it appears
accusatory, but it's not defamatory or libelous. The BSA does not state
that the $RECIPIENT is participating in the action. (1.a)
> Based upon BSA's representation of the copyright owners in
> anti-piracy matters, we have a good faith belief that none of the
> materials or activities listed above have been authorized by the
> rightholders, their agents, or the law. BSA represents that the
> information in this notification is accurate and states, under
> penalty of perjury, that it is authorized to act in this matter on
> behalf of the copyright owners listed above.
3. They state that it is their "belief" that none of the materials have
been authorized by the rightholders, not that this is factually the case.
> We hereby give notice of these activities to you and request that
> you take expeditious action to remove or disable access to the
> materials described above, and thereby prevent the illegal
> reproduction and distribution of pirated software via your company's
> network. As you know, illegal on-line activities can result in 50
> million people on the Internet accessing and downloading a
> copyrighted product worldwide without authorization - a highly
> damaging activity for the copyright holder.
>
> We appreciate your cooperation in this matter. Please advise us
> regarding what actions you take.
4. They offer no threat of consequences, and only state that failure to
disable access would result in continued distribution. That they categorise
the distribution as "illegal" and damaging to the copyright holder stems
from the earlier mistake made in good faith.
5. They open the door to correction by asking for advisement. In this case,
advisement is that $RECIPIENT is taking no action at all as the BSA's
search criteria are hosed and need revision, pronto.
See? Weasel-worded. So long as the BSA apologises and drops the issue (as
they've done) I think there are no grounds for a lawsuit.
Gregory D. Horne
From the email from the BSA:
>> Based upon BSA's representation of the copyright owners in anti-piracy
>> matters, we have a good faith belief that none of the materials or
>> activities listed above have been authorized by the rightholders, their
>> agents, or the law. BSA represents that the information in this
>> notification is accurate and states, under penalty of perjury, that
it is
>> authorized to act in this matter on behalf of the copyright owners
listed
>> above.
Notice the second sentence.
>>BSA represents that the information in this
>> notification is accurate and states, under penalty of perjury, that
it is
>> authorized to act in this matter on behalf of the copyright owners
listed
>> above.
From their own declaration the BSA has in fact misrepresented the facts
by virtue that their claim is not valid given that the information in
said notification is not accurate. Namely, the claim arising from the
presumption of the university providing pirated software in the form of
OpenOffice.org-1.0.1. The BSA should at the very least be tried in
civil court under the liable laws or small claims court under some form
of damages to the university.
Gary Hallock
> From their own declaration the BSA has in fact misrepresented the facts
> by virtue that their claim is not valid given that the information in
> said notification is not accurate. Namely, the claim arising from the
> presumption of the university providing pirated software in the form of
> OpenOffice.org-1.0.1. The BSA should at the very least be tried in
> civil court under the liable laws or small claims court under some form
> of damages to the university.
I found it curious that only OpenOffice was mentioned. Why not koffice,
which was in the same ftp directory. Perhaps they are searching for an
exact case match with Office. Or perhaps OpenOffice is specifically being
targeted. If the latter could be proven it would strengthen a case
against the BSA.
Of course, the whole idea of scanning the web looking for name matches is
pointless. Anyone actually providing downloads of pirated software would
simply rename it.
Gary
Rick
> On Fri, 28 Feb 2003 17:41:15 GMT, cybear <cyb...@pacbell.net> wrote:
>
> Well, Open Office is more or less a MS Office rip-off, so people using
> Open Office are nothing more than MS Office pirates.
You are a liar.
--
Rick
GreyCloud
More like the crap sued out of them.
Martha H Adams
"Corinna Beck" person has to be a bit odd. I cannot however, guess
what lies behind that.
Cheers -- Martha Adams
Jim Richardson
Hash: SHA1
No, he's a lying troll. The difference is minor I grant you.
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--
Jim Richardson http://www.eskimo.com/~warlock
A bad day, is when aliens attack, the dog bites you, and your boss tells
you that the new client wants to make a few changes before delivery.
Linux, super computers, office computers, or home computers, it works.
Gary Hallock
> Infringement Details:
> ------------------------------
> First Found: 24 Nov 2002 15:31:40 EST (GMT -500)
> Last Found: 24 Feb 2003 01:19:59 EST (GMT -500)
> IP Address: 128.176.191.21
> IP Port: 21
> Protocol: FTP
> FTP Login Name: anonymous
> FTP Login Password: gu...@nowhere.com
Now this is funny. They used a fake email address for the FTP login but I
wonder if they know that nowhere.com is a real site:
Identity theft?
Gary
Mark
> Open Office are nothing more than MS Office pirates.
>
Dave Leigh
<3E5FE9CC...@horne.name>:
> From their own declaration the BSA has in fact misrepresented the facts
> by virtue that their claim is not valid given that the information in
> said notification is not accurate. Namely, the claim arising from the
> presumption of the university providing pirated software in the form of
> OpenOffice.org-1.0.1. The BSA should at the very least be tried in
> civil court under the liable laws or small claims court under some form
> of damages to the university.
Except that they've carefully avoided any libel. The email informs the
university that they believe illegal distribution is being done on their
servers, but never accuses the university of participating in the action.
So rather than a lawsuit we have to simply enjoy the sight of the BSA
looking like clueless idiots.
Mark
out. I'm sure the media would have a field day.
Gary Hallock
> I should stick some empty zip files up somewhere called "msoffice2000" and the
> likes, just to see what happens.
Call it msOffice2000. The search appears to be case sensitive.
Gary
Jazz
00:47 11000101000001100 comp.os.linux.advocacy :
>
> Well, Open Office is more or less a MS Office rip-off, so people using
> Open Office are nothing more than MS Office pirates.
Oh, so you are the nutcase claiming that OO.o users rip off Microsoft.
Figures.
--
Jazz.
========================================================
NEW SIG-LINE EXPECTED REAL SOON!!!!!!
INCREDIBLE FEATURES! AMAZING PUNS!
DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME READING OTHER SIG-LINES!
WAIT FOR VAPOUR-SIG.NET 2003 <TM> !!!
========================================================
Nigel Feltham
> On Fri, 28 Feb 2003 12:29:48 -0500, Rick <rha...@excite.com> wrote:
> Complete and utter incompetence on the part of the BSA.
Well what do you expect from someone so closely connected to MS -
incompetence seems to be MS standard whatever they do.
--
begin sig
Not the moderator of Comp.Os.Linux.Advocacy
It's unmoderated and anyone who claims otherwise is a clueless moron - this
includes you kerke the jerke.
Rick
> On Sat, 01 Mar 2003 20:19:09 +1300, Mark <bon...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>>And a nice excerp in the state and national papers should sort things
>>out. I'm sure the media would have a field day.
>
> The media don't care, sorry to spoil your fun. As far as the media are
> concerned, anyone who uses alternative software is an evil hacker.
You might want to tell that to Businessweek...
BTW, define alternative. The Macintosh is an alternative... are all Mac
users "evil hackers"?
--
Rick
Nigel Feltham
> On Fri, 28 Feb 2003 22:58:15 +0000, Gregory D. Horne wrote:
>
>
>> From their own declaration the BSA has in fact misrepresented the facts
>> by virtue that their claim is not valid given that the information in
>> said notification is not accurate. Namely, the claim arising from the
>> presumption of the university providing pirated software in the form of
>> OpenOffice.org-1.0.1. The BSA should at the very least be tried in
>> civil court under the liable laws or small claims court under some form
>> of damages to the university.
>
> I found it curious that only OpenOffice was mentioned. Why not koffice,
> which was in the same ftp directory. Perhaps they are searching for an
> exact case match with Office. Or perhaps OpenOffice is specifically being
> targeted. If the latter could be proven it would strengthen a case
> against the BSA.
Shame that Openoffice.org didn't get sent a letter - that would have been
really hilarious, being accused of distributing software without copyright
holders permission when you are the copyright holder.
What Next, ftp,microsoft.com being accused of illegally supplying Internet
Explorer downloads?
Peter Jensen
>> If you do run an ftp site that has "infringing content", then be prepared
>> for an email from them. It seems that their web crawler is pretty thorough
>> and persistent...
>
> I should stick some empty zip files up somewhere called "msoffice2000" and the
> likes, just to see what happens.
Better yet, make them of a convincing size for an ISO image. Then fill the
file with this sentence: "You have lost! :-)". This way, you can tell them
to stuff their orders to remove the item. If they bite, I suspect they will
be rather annoyed ... :-)
end
--
PeKaJe
cybear
> On Sat, 01 Mar 2003 18:09:44 +0000, Nigel Feltham
> <nigel....@btinternet.com> wrote:
>> blue...@subdimension.com wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, 28 Feb 2003 12:29:48 -0500, Rick <rha...@excite.com> wrote:
>>>> Very interesting:
>>>>
>>>> http://slashdot.org/
>>>><http://distribution.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?msgId=581265&listName=dev>
>>>
>>> Complete and utter incompetence on the part of the BSA.
>>
>> Well what do you expect from someone so closely connected to MS -
>> incompetence seems to be MS standard whatever they do.
>
> Indeed. Have the Outlook programmers even managed to fix something as
> simple as the
> begin problem yet?
Or patched the 13 unpatched bugs in IE?
Andres Soolo
>> Better yet, make them of a convincing size for an ISO image. Then fill the
>> file with this sentence: "You have lost! :-)". This way, you can tell them
>> to stuff their orders to remove the item. If they bite, I suspect they will
>> be rather annoyed ... :-)
>
Core files may contain sensitive data. You wouldn't want BSA to get
their dirty hands on that.
--
Andres Soolo <so...@math.ut.ee>
Herth's Law:
He who turns the other cheek too far gets it in the neck.
Rick
> Mac is pretty mainstream, most people have heard of them, many people used
> them at school, the Mac does not have the reputation of being an evil
> hacker OS.
Neither does *nix. You might want to check into what OS most of the scrit
kiddies are using.
--
Rick
Linønut
> blue...@subdimension.com wrote:
>>> Better yet, make them of a convincing size for an ISO image. Then fill the
>>> file with this sentence: "You have lost! :-)". This way, you can tell them
>>> to stuff their orders to remove the item. If they bite, I suspect they will
>>> be rather annoyed ... :-)
>>
>> I could use corefiles, too :)
>
> Core files may contain sensitive data. You wouldn't want BSA to get
> their dirty hands on that.
Yeah, run the corefile through strings first.
--
Microsoft is being pecked to death by Penguins.
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
at 12:29 PM, Rick <rha...@excite.com> said:
><http://distribution.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?msgId=581265&listName=dev>
Any chance of getting one of the major media to cover the story?
--
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz, SysProg and JOAT
Any unsolicited commercial junk E-mail will be subject to legal
action. I reserve the right to publicly post or ridicule any
abusive E-mail.
I mangled my E-mail address to foil automated spammers; reply to
domain Patriot dot net user shmuel+news to contact me. Do not
reply to spam...@library.lspace.org
Nucleon
> I found it curious that only OpenOffice was mentioned. Why not koffice,
> which was in the same ftp directory. Perhaps they are searching for an
> exact case match with Office. Or perhaps OpenOffice is specifically being
> targeted. If the latter could be proven it would strengthen a case
> against the BSA.
The path included .../srpms/..., as in srpMS. Seems likely to me.
I personally don't think there's any conspiracy going on, but it's still
funny.
--
Nucleon, RLU #278930, reverse(rot13("zbp.bpgz@erxyrspg"))
He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned
my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him
the spinal cord would suffice.
-- Albert Einstein