Beware the Business Software Alliance, and the Software & Information Industry Association. Their stated goals are to work for software vendors to prevent software piracy. Their actions, however, routinely terrorize and penalize businesses guilty of nothing more than sloppy bookkeeping and being confused by incredibly complex software licensing agreement contracts.

I first covered this display of corporate greed and bullying in The Software Protection Racket, Part 1. Many readers, appalled at the business practices of the BSA and SIIA when exposed, helped supply information for the next two columns, The Software Protection Racket Part 2, and Business Software Alliance: Outright Liars or Just Truth Challenged? followed by the fourth in the series, Readers Answer the Bully Software Alliance.

Dozens of readers and software industry executives wrote in response to these columns. One reader, an IT manager, went on a group camping trip that included an employee of the BSA. The BSA employee argued the entire week with our reader, convinced that no company actually paid for all the software they used and accurately tracked their license requirements.

This is only one case, detractors say, but this attitude radiates from the BSA constantly. Everyone is guilty, and the BSA is judge, jury, and financial executioner. Over two years ago I wrote about this issue in a column entitled No One Expects the Software Inquisition. Funny title reference to Monty Python notwithstanding, the use of the term Inquisition on my part was deliberate: they have the power, they have the deep pockets, and they can ruin any small business they want to ruin with their allegations.

The BSA and SIIA pick on small to medium sized companies, not huge companies with plenty of legal resources of their own. Attorney Robert Scott, who provided the legal background and explanation for the series of articles that ran this year, has defended a company with seven computers. You read that correctly - seven, not seventy or seven hundred.

Most readers want to know one of two things. First, why doesn't the BSA chase the large counterfeiters making realistic copies of software by the ton, rather than a company that buys 12 copies of software but loads it on 13 computers. Second, why don't more companies switch to Open Source software to avoid these types of licensing issues altogether?