[ILUG] BSA - Interesting Slashdot thread

[John McCormac]

"John P . Looney" wrote:
> 
> On Wed, Nov 08, 2000 at 09:27:24PM -0000, Philip Trickett mentioned:
> > Over on /. there is an interesting article:
> > http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/08/1646226&mode=thread
> >
> > About the powers of the BSA and the legality of them being able to 'raid' a
> > company to check on piracy. It offers plenty of US viewpoints on legal
> > standing etc. but I was just wondering what sort of rights do they have
> > here?
> 
>  They have to have a court order to enter your house (much like the TV
> license people, and the police), and to get such an order, they have to
> show probable cause...
> 
>  It's just saber rattling....

Yeah it would be nice to see some saber rattling BSA type being met by a
cutlass weilding pirate. :-) As far as I know, the BSA here has no
powers in law that would enable it to make a raid. As for the required
order, I think that it would be an Anton Piller order. You'd have to get
a legal opinion on this but I think that it is possible to require a
garda to be present at the time the order is executed. 

Actually I wonder how legit the BSA people are and if they have ever
indulged in software piracy in the past. :-)

Regards...jmcc
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