OneAndOneIs2

*sigh*

The Beeb usually does better than this. I'm disappointed, I confess. More than one-third of business software used by companies around the world is pirated, they tell us.

They may even be right. But the conclusions they draw aren't very good. Not at all.

Firstly, the whole report is based on data from the Business Software Alliance (BSA). Would you believe, Microsoft is a member of this one. The BSA is also a supporter of software patents, and has been heavily criticised for its aggressive tactics and the yearly study it publishes about copyright infringement of software - i.e. the previous versions of this very report.

They have a track record of being accused of flawed, overestimated figures. No mention of that from the Beeb when they talk about those selfsame numbers.

They do grudgingly admit that "some nations, such as China, had made big inroads into the amount of illegal software companies were using" but go on to say that this is due to a "commitment from the Chinese government to only use licenced software itself and tougher regulations to make companies buy licences"

Right. . . It's all down to China behaving itself and buying more licenses. And nothing at all to do with, say, software that doesn't need licenses. China isn't a fan of Linux at all, and FOSS isn't a boom industry there at all. No. They're just ponying up with cash for MS, that's all.

See what I mean? It reads like a propaganda piece. The BBC is very well aware of Linux and FOSS, why has it published this piece of garbage?

In fairness, they have got one true gem of a quote from the BSA's vice-chair: "the industry could only go so far to lock down its products before interoperability suffered."

How very true. Somebody should have mentioned that to the Vista guys, it could have made their lives a lot easier