Maybe the term "pirate" to describe illegal software downloaders should be retired.
This is especially clear now that the Business Software Alliance is using the word to conflate two completely different things, taking advantage of recent news regarding dangerous Somali pirates to promote a campaign against software piracy.
An e-mail to CNet blogger Gordon Haff describes the campaign this way: "We've all been following the events of the past week of the pirates off the Horn of Africa. Piracy takes many forms, some more violent than others. I wanted to let you know that the Business Software Alliance is launching a new campaign today "Faces of Internet Piracy" that shows the real-life impact of software piracy--from hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines to jail time."
In this light, the campaign itself borders on ridiculous, with a video that sets up like a heartbreaking tale of drug abuse, but instead documents how a few people bought and sold some software illegally. Complete with cheesy video effects and testimonials about cops swarming houses, I'm sort of wondering if this is self-parody. "With the click of a mouse, these five individuals turned from businessman, track star, grandmother, college student, and software programmer into software pirates," the tagline reads.
Funny, I'm not seeing the connection between an FBI search and the use of snipers to rescue a kidnapped Navy captain.
In all seriousness, there has been some discussion in the media of abandoning the "software pirate" moniker. Certainly, it's something the BSA would love to use forever, but some other lingo will have to do if these kinds of misguided campaigns keep popping up.
