And now onto the money that was taken from Sterling Ball's company Ernie
Ball, and the trouble caused them by illegal Microsoft and their BSA
henchmen. The full article is here:
http://news.com.com/2008-1082_3-5065859.html
Rockin' on without Microsoft - by David Becker (Staff Writer, CNET
News.com- August 20, 2003)
Sterling Ball, a jovial, plain-talking businessman, is CEO of Ernie
Ball, the world's leading maker of premium guitar strings endorsed by
generations of artists ranging from the likes of Eric Clapton to the dudes
from Metallica.
But since jettisoning all of Microsoft products three years ago, Ernie
Ball has also gained notoriety as a company that dumped most of its
proprietary software--and still lived to tell the tale.
In 2000, the Business Software Alliance conducted a raid and subsequent
audit at the San Luis Obispo, Calif.-based company that turned up a few
dozen unlicensed copies of programs. (As relates the event: "We've never
been sued, never had any problems paying our bills. And one day I got a call
that there were armed marshals at my door talking about software license
compliance...I thought I was OK; I buy computers with licensed software. But
my lawyer told me it could be pretty bad.") Ball settled for $65,000, plus
$35,000 in legal fees. But by then, the BSA, a trade group that helps
enforce copyrights and licensing provisions for major business software
makers, had put the company on the evening news and featured it in regional
ads warning other businesses to monitor their software licenses.
Humiliated by the experience, Ball told his IT department he wanted
Microsoft products out of his business within six months. "I said, 'I don't
care if we have to buy 10,000 abacuses,'" recalled Ball, who recently
addressed the LinuxWorld trade show. "We won't do business with someone who
treats us poorly."
And what were the nature of the "unlicensed copies" that caused Ball and his
company so much trouble? Ball states: "We pass our old computers down. The
guys in engineering need a new PC, so they get one and we pass theirs on to
somebody doing clerical work. Well, if you don't wipe the hard drive on that
PC, that's a violation. Even if they can tell a piece of software isn't
being used, it's still a violation if it's on that hard drive." - I
wonder... how many people realize that if they buy a new computer with
Microsoft on it, use it for a couple of years and then give it to their
little brother when they go off to college with another new computer, that
their little brother is breaking the law unless he deletes everything on the
hard drive, destroys any disks containing the Microsoft OS that came with
the computer and goes out and spends several hundreds dollars repurchasing
the same software that came on the computer in the first place. This is
really obscene! It's comparable to buying a book and then being required by
law to burn the book after reading so no one else can read it! It's
insane! Would typical Microsoft users go on supporting that company if
armed BSA henchmen came pounding on their doors demanding to see every
computer in the house and fined everyone who was not the original user of
that machine? Why aren't there more cases of people fighting Microsoft's
illegal tactics? When Ball was asked if he had wanted to settle, he
replied:
Never, never. That's the difference between the way an employee and an
owner thinks. They attacked my family's name and came into my community and
made us look bad. There was never an instance of me wanting to give in. I
would have loved to have fought it. But when (the BSA) went to Congress to
get their powers, part of what they got is that I automatically have to pay
their legal fees from day one. That's why nobody's ever challenged
them--they can't afford it. My attorney said it was going to cost our side a
quarter million dollars to fight them, and since you're paying their side,
too, figure at least half a million. It's not worth it. You pay the fine and
get on with your business. What most people do is get terrified and pay
their license and continue to pay their licenses. And they do that no matter
what the license program turns into.
The rest of the article is in the form of an interview and it makes for
interesting reading. See the whole thing at the link above.
So - evidence put on the screen, we can turn to the question of "Why
bother?". Believe me - I would much rather have done something else with
the time I've spent putting this letter together, but if we don't watch our
backs and keep vigilant, we'll end up being just more road kill for
Microsoft.
The most productive software I use that enables me to earn a living with my
computer does not come from Microsoft. Indeed, the biggest time and money
wasters over the years have consistently come from Microsoft. I'm not even
talking about the financial aspect here - I don't mind buying good software
sold at a reasonable price and I often do, but rotten software sold at
insanely high prices is insulting and destructive.
RM
