Rupert Goodwins' Diary
The Business Software Alliance phones 'Scoop' Wearden to crow about its success in closing down software piracy rings. In the UK alone, seven computers have been seized! Counterfeit driving licences and a hundred CD copiers confiscated!! The BSA even has an Internet Investigator, called Mr X, available to amplify on the smashing triumph of good over evil!!!
"So, er, how can you tell that you're having an impact?" asks Scoop, knowing full well that certain people sitting next to him on the newsdesk have more than seven computers in their front room alone.
"Easy!" says the BSA. "There's been a huge upsurge in spam offering dodgy deals on pirate software. This is the length to which these people have been driven by our iron fist closing on their slime-coated pipeline." (I paraphrase slightly).
"Really?" asks Graeme. "Sure!" says the BSA -- and to prove this, it promptly forwards a choice selection of spam to Scoop's mailbox. "Coo!" he says. "Photoshop for $40!" So not only is the BSA claiming responsibility for vastly increasing the amount of spam we're getting, it's prepared to join in and send some of the stuff itself.
Cool.
Now all we have to do is work out how our spam filter knows to let stuff through if it's from the BSA. There are dark forces at work.