The BSA has quickly retreated from its claim that distribution of OpenOffice.org infringes Microsoft's Office copyrights, but not before underscoring the problems with these automated infringement searches. What if, per RIAA v. Verizon, they had been able to turn this into a subpoena without court oversight? What about the Chilling Effects of this kind of mailing?
From the initial BSA letter:
Dear Sir/Madam: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.[...]
What was located as infringing content:
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Filename: /mandrake_current/SRPMS/OpenOffice.org-1.0.1-9mdk.src.rpm
the thread, from OpenOffice.org
Posted by Wendy at March 02, 2003 02:38 PM | TrackBack