BSA Accuses OpenOffice Mirrors 808
sqrt529 writes "A German university was accused by the BSA of pirating MS Office, because they mirrored OpenOffice.org. The scripts from the BSA only check for "Office" in the filename and then automatically send out notices to the ftp admins. Did any of you get similar notices from the BSA?"
Open Office Outlawed (Score:5, Funny)
MS copyrights speech! (Score:1, Funny)
Simon
Those darn Boy Scouts. (Score:4, Funny)
Feature (Score:1, Funny)
BSA Manual: (Score:1, Funny)
wow... (Score:3, Funny)
If Office Depot had an ftp site where you could get their latest catalogue, they'd be accused of pirating M$ Office?!
I think they went a bit too far this time.
~Jon~
With solid work like this (Score:0, Funny)
Sounds like BSA needs to... (Score:0, Funny)
B) Hire some real programmers
C) Spend more time actually doing their job
D) Figure out a better way to do their job
E) Change their paradyme from assuming pirating to assuming not
F) Hire CoyboyNeal to do their dirty work
G) All of the above
Well, I leave it up to you guys to figure out what they should do.
CoyboyNeal anyone?
P.E. problem? (Score:0, Funny)
Re:Open Office Outlawed (Score:5, Funny)
SlashDOT_MS_OFFICE_2K_1_of_37.zip
heh.
Re:Funny! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Wow. That's stupid. (Score:5, Funny)
Searched the web for Office.
Results 1 - 10 of about 78,600,000. Search took 0.10 seconds.
Start sending the letters!
as an interesting side note, the first link is US Copyright Office [loc.gov]
BSA is right (Score:3, Funny)
Do a good deed daily (Score:4, Funny)
Dadgumit, the Boy Scouts of America [scouting.org] have gone too far this time! Back in my day, we helped little old ladies across the street... Now they're policing for pirated software? Sheesh...
Re:BSA Manual: (Score:1, Funny)
You've got it all wrong... it's:
- Create automated application to look for piracy
- Shoot self in foot
- ???
- Profit!!
~Jon~50 million people download OpenOffice (Score:5, Funny)
Quote: "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."
Well I suppose 50 million people downloading OpenOffice would damage Microsoft's Office sales :)
Hey you stole my joke... (Score:2, Funny)
Here's my post. [slashdot.org]
Ha beat you to it.. but seems nobody noticed mine
Slashdot to be sued (Score:3, Funny)
As president of Ashdo Software Inc., I take software piracy very seriously. Recently, the sophisticated scanning software of the Business Software Alliance has detected that your website "www.slashdot.org" is most certainly hosting and distributing illegally-obtained copies of proprietary Ashdo programs. You are hereby ordered to cease and desist the above activities, which I'm sure are also in violation of the DMCA in some way or another.
Sincerely,
Hiram Ashdo
President, Ashdo Software Inc.
cc: BSA
Harrass them right back! (Score:3, Funny)
Then take them to small claims court when they don't pay!
Ironically (Score:3, Funny)
/me is glad the Cold War is over :-)
Re:This is almost funny..... (Score:1, Funny)
SRPMS/OpenOffice
Look it contains 'MS' and 'Office'! Just ignore the '/Open' bit inbetween and send off the letters!
This is too much... (Score:5, Funny)
I don't know what's funnier... that they're claiming copyright infringement of OpenOffice, or that they thought Microsoft Office came as RPMs!!
This is the part I refer to:
-
What was located as infringing content:
Oh hell, I needed a laugh this morning...Filename: /mandrake_current/SRPMS/OpenOffice.org-1.0.1-9mdk. src.rpm /mandrake_current/i586/Mandrake/RPMS/OpenOffice.or g-libs-1.0.1-9mdk.i586.rpm
(199,643kb)
Filename:
(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).
Re:MS copyrights speech! (Word Up!) (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, but think of the money they could collect from Vanilla Ice, Cameo, and the various other early 90's rap stars.
OpenOffice to your mother.
Re:MS copyrights speech! (Score:5, Funny)
1 Slashdot Way
Re: Unauthorized use of "Word" in Slashdot comment "MS copyrights speech!"
URL: http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=55437&cid
Dear Mr. Hibbs:
I am writing to inform you that you are using Microsoft's (MSFT) copyrighted term "Word" (TERM) in your postings without authorization. This reproduction of MSFT's TERM violates federal copyright law.
Be advised that federal copyright law provides substantial protection for authors against the unauthorized use of their work. Registration of a copyright is unnecessary; the Copyright Act provides such protection from the moment an author's ideas are reduced to tangible form. Only MSFT has the right to reproduce, adapt, distribute and publicly display TERM. Anyone who infringes upon an author's exclusive rights by copying and/or unlawfully appropriating the work can be judicially restrained from making such improper uses of the work, subject to the impounding of unauthorized copies of the work and held accountable for monetary damages incurred and/or profits earned as a result of these unlawful acts.
MSFT hereby demands that you immediately cease and desist from making any further use of any MSFT copyrights in your postings or elsewhere. If you want to make any use of TERM, you must secure MSFT's permission to do so before proceeding. Please immediately contact us regarding appropriate compensation for your past unauthorized use of TERM.
William Gates (billg@microsoft.com)
1 Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052
Time to make some "Special" zip files... (Score:5, Funny)
Just remember everyone, Unix-like operating systems (Free-BSD, Linux, GNU/Linux, HPUX, Solaris, etc.) have the capability to have "Empty" files. When you do an `ls`, they CAN show up as huge....
I think I'll go making a download page at my website with "Office.zip", "Word.zip", and "Outlook.zip", which all will appear to be 600 megs or larger.....
What the script probably found was... (Score:5, Funny)
Hmmm, seem's as if their regexps need some fine-tuning...
There's a huge shiny bright spot in this: (Score:4, Funny)
Re:analogy time (Score:4, Funny)
Been here long?
Re:This is too much... (Score:4, Funny)
Filename:
(199,643kb)
And *source* RPMs at that! The day I see source RPMs of Microsoft Office is the day I eat my right shoe!
No one claims they've got a brains monopoly (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Those darn Boy Scouts. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Here's an idea: Let's sue the BSA! (Score:1, Funny)
Re:In Yo Face (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Wow. That's stupid. (Score:4, Funny)
"Oops. Oy is there egg on my helmet!"
Re:Time to make some "Special" zip files... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:So what would you ask the BSA? (Score:5, Funny)
I don't know. . . stuff. Nothing grandiose or complicated - just simple things like leg irons, hot pokers, thumbscrews. . .
Re:Open Office Outlawed (Score:5, Funny)
filled my ftp (Score:4, Funny)
227 Entering Passive Mode (127,0,0,1,249,244)
150 Here comes the directory listing.
drwxr-xr-x 2 502 502 4096 Feb 28 15:40
drwxr-xr-x 12 502 502 4096 Feb 28 15:36
-rw-rw-r-- 1 502 502 0 Feb 28 15:37 BSA-are-morons.zip
-rw-rw-r-- 1 502 502 0 Feb 28 15:36 Microsoft.Office.XP-sucks.zip
-rw-rw-r-- 1 502 502 0 Feb 28 15:39 hazxxx0r
-rw-rw-r-- 1 502 502 0 Feb 28 15:39 illegal
-rw-rw-r-- 1 502 502 0 Feb 28 15:38 illegal.mp3
-rw-rw-r-- 1 502 502 0 Feb 28 15:39 microsoft.salty.bastard.zip
-rw-rw-r-- 1 502 502 0 Feb 28 15:37 microsoft.zip
-rw-rw-r-- 1 502 502 0 Feb 28 15:37 office.zip
-rw-rw-r-- 1 502 502 0 Feb 28 15:37 openoffice is better than microsoft word.zip
-rw-rw-r-- 1 502 502 0 Feb 28 15:38 touchisagreattool
-rw-rw-r-- 1 502 502 0 Feb 28 15:39 warezr0kr.rar
226 Directory send OK.
now i just sit back and wait for them to spider my ftp and send me a notice, then i can have the joy of telling them to piss off.
hopefully this will fuck them off a bit.
Then go the next step... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This is too much... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Wow. That's stupid. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Open Office Outlawed (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Does the BSA represent OpenOffice.org? Perjury it is then...
Re:analogy time (Score:5, Funny)
After college you use a small inheritance to open up a wicker basket shop. What's wrong with that? Just because you're a man doesn't mean you can't sell wicker bastkets! It has NOTHING to do with your sexuality. Anyway, one day an odd man walks into your shop, picks up a basket, and starts screaming "You haff stolen mein design! Look at zis basket!"
Quickly you rush over to get him to stop screaming. He looks at you oddly for a second, then mutters "my mistake" and shoves the basket into your hands and stumbles out. As you start to put the basket back on the shelf, you notice a strange capsule on the bottom. "Odd." you think.
Since it's your lunch hour the next time the shop is empty you put up your closed sign and sit back in your office. Examining the small capsule you realize that you can open it. When you do so a small piece of translucent plastic pops out. "Wait a minute," you think, "that almost looks like microfilm..." This has turned into a strange day. You put the plastic back in the capsule and hide it in the office safe, behind the picture of dogs playing poker. All through the rest of the day you puzzle over the odd events. Finally, you close up shop and leave; since tomorrow is Saturday, you open up late. Maybe you can head over to your alma mater, the local community college where you studied Wicker Science and use one of their microfiche machines to see if that strange strip of plastic really is microfilm.
As you stop by your office early Saturday morning you sense something is wrong. Quickly entering your office you're horrified to find that the place is trashed; papers are strewn about, furniture has been moved, and figurines from your porcelain kitten collection have been thrown to the ground, and now lay in shards. Breathlessly you check your safe; apparently they didn't check the painting, and the capsule is still there. You feel a cold ball of fear settle in your stomach; what the hell is going on?
If you've read this far you'll find it's not really an analogy, but I wanted to write a little story featuring a wicker shop. Maybe next time a post on slashdot mentions a wicker basket shop I'll write part II of the story.
Why not (Score:3, Funny)
Re:analogy time (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Open Office Outlawed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Open Office Outlawed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Wow. That's stupid. (Score:5, Funny)
>Searched the web for Office.
>Results 1 - 10 of about 78,600,000. Search took 0.10 seconds.
>Start sending the letters!
Hey, at $400 a copy that's $31,440,000,000 in lost revenues! Damn pirates...
Re:Windows (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Open Office Outlawed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Open Office Outlawed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Harrass them right back! (Score:2, Funny)
She Exists... (Score:3, Funny)
She put me on hold and didn't pick up again before I gave up, but at least she exists.
Re:Feature (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Open Office Outlawed (Score:5, Funny)
This sounds like the "one of us always lies" riddle. If the BSA did not lie, then they are guilty of perjury (according to their own statement). If they did lie, then they are guilty of perjury in claiming that they made the statement under the penalty of perjury when, in fact, this was not the case.
BSA Honeypot Server (Score:2, Funny)
I would kill my self to see them diging around at my ftp and trying to download the files.
To fool them eaven more you could add serval *.nfo and *.diz files to the directory containing those "fake" files.
And don't forgett to use the letter Z as much you can: aPPz, GaMeZ, UpLoAdZ, WaReZ, SerialZ, CrACkZ, KeyGenZ, etc...
Re:Wow. That's stupid. (Score:2, Funny)
part II (Score:5, Funny)
The library is busy, with both microfiche machines in use. You pace impatiently, waiting for one machine to become free. After the longest five minutes that you can remember, the student at the right hand machine gathers up his papers, pushes the chair back, stands up and leaves.
Quickly, you grab the chair and sit, tense with anticipation of what you might find. Opening the capsule hastily, the film flutters out onto the desk. Carefully, you place the film in the viewer.
Blurry lines come into view. A few seconds play with the controls and you start to see a photograph of a document. It looks like an internal memo for some organisation. At the top of the page, a small logo that look like an eye in an equilateral triangle stares blurrily at you from the screen. Underneath the logo, two succinct sentences explain:
"Le Méridien Heliopolis, Cairo. March 1st, 4pm Main Bar.
"1-555-648-9777"
Why would this need to be on microfiche? What was the eye in the triangle? Why was there a phone number?
You quickly copy the details and, pausing only to see if your activities have attracted attention (they haven't), you grab the film and head to a nearby phone booth. You stare at the phone for a long time before deciding to call the number. I mean, what harm could it do? A public phone. Whatever the number was, you could call it and hang up if things got weird.
You dial the number. Within one ring, a women answers, addresses you by name, and tells you that your flight will be leaving this evening and that it would be in your interest to be there on time. Oh, and your ticket, passport and expenses can be picked up from the AirEgypt check-in.
"But, hang..." - the phone is already dead. You redial. This time you get a line disconnected tone.
Your shop is trashed, you're no longer the Wicker Man(tm). Curiosity killed the cat but, after the day you've had, you decide you need to follow this through.
The pickup at the airport is smooth, the passport is a perfect fake. "Dr. Kim Brown, Phd". Apparently you are an Australian importer going to check out some sculptures for your company. Wicker to sculptures? You're sure you can make the transition easily enough.
The flight is long and uneventful. You sleep fitfully with omenous dreams. You awake as the screach of tyres on asphalt announces your arrival. You go straight to the hotel and unpack. Still an hour to go.
AT five minutes to four, you enter the bar and buy a large shot of Bourbon to steady your nerves. As you bring down your glass, you see a man sat opposite you smiling.
"Dr. Brown, welcome. Please come with me. I need your help to move some 'rocks'."
You follow the small stranger down several back alleys until the streets open up and you are in a field. With real rocks. Not rocks.
"Help me push this rock", your guide motions.
Both of you push the rock, but it is stuck solid.
"We need some more help. Go to the street and grab five or six people to give us a hand. Tell them I'll pay them 5 pounds each if they'll help."
Ten minutes later I return with six locals, happy to make some easy money. We all push together, but the stone is still solid. My guide thinks for a second.
"We need more help."
He asks each of the locals to run off and grab some others to help.
Suddenly, realisation dawns on you and you run, run for your life. What a fool you have been. You travel halfway around the world under mysterious circumstance, only to find out it's a damn Pyramid Scheme.
Better luck next time, eh?
cLive
ps - if you made it here, well done
Re:Open Office Outlawed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Open Office Outlawed (Score:1, Funny)
Multiple Screenshots Of Fricking Freak In Compromising Exposure - Xtremely Pr0nographic
If nothing else, it would cause some employee turnover. Ugh! I'm blind!!
Hey! They've got WINDOWS XP too!!
Why I Now Don't Open Wrapper programs Showing - Xtreme Pr0n
Re:Open Office Outlawed (Score:3, Funny)