BSA's New Anti-Piracy Campaign

Concerned that students do not exercise ethical judgment when it comes to technology, the Business Software Alliance (www.bsa.org), teachers and elected officials yesterday launched a campaign to drive home the importance of ethical software use.

BSA is spearheading the awareness drive -- dubbed "Reboot Your Attitude" and developed in conjunction with Scholastic Inc. (www.scholastic.com/reboot) -- to promote anti-piracy practices to high school students. BSA representatives were joined by U.S. Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) at the unveiling of the program at Oakton High School in Northern Virginia.

BSA also has posted information on the campaign to a companion World Wide Web site at www.nopiracy.com.

Featured prominently in the BSA press kit is a Los Angeles Times editorial detailing a piracy bust at L.A. Unified School District, which cost the district $300,000 in settlement fees and almost $5 million in software-replacement costs.

The "Three R's" -- for rights, responsibility, and respect -- are the watchwords of the campaign: rights, for knowing know who owns the rights of software and the conditions of use, and responsibility, for taking full ownership of your software -- "that means abiding by the conditions, even if you think you would never get caught." And finally, "respect software programs as if you created them yourself," the campaign advises. "Software is creative work, just like a painting, poem or movie."