BSA | The Software Alliance

What is BSA | The Software Alliance?

BSA | The Software Alliance is an advocate for public policies that foster technology innovation and drive economic growth.

BSA's policy team works with governments and public stakeholders across the globe to provide the support that companies need to deal with issues such as data sovereignty, data privacy, data security, intellectual property and fair trade in a digital economy.

BSA is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has offices, staff and active operations in more than 60 countries around the world.

BSA's members include software companies such as Adobe, Ansys, Autodesk, Bentley Systems, IBM, Intuit, Mastercam, Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce, Siemens, Splunk, Trend Micro, Trimble and Workday.

What does the BSA | The Software Alliance do?

For much of its history, BSA has been perceived as an enforcement organization that targets pirated software users and seeks financial settlements.

The organization has evolved beyond enforcing software licenses and is now a leading advocate helping to "pioneer compliance programs that promote legal software use and advocates for public policies that foster technology innovation and drive growth in the digital economy,” according to BSA.org.

However, BSA also:

• Allows the free flow of data across borders.
• Avoids requirements for data services to store data locally.
• Advocates a balanced approach to privacy and security
• Advances intellectual property policies that enforce software pricing and anti-piracy laws.
• Opens global markets to digital trade groups and mitigates market access barriers for the software industry.
• Encourages a level playing field by promoting procurement policies that are fair and non-discriminatory.

BSA conducts and releases a number of studies and reports related to software, including the Global Software Survey, which estimates the volume and value of unlicensed software installed on personal computers in countries around the world.

It also determines the Global Cloud Computing Scorecard, which ranks the cloud computing initiatives of providers in 24 countries.

BSA's enforcement team ensures that member companies' innovations are fully licensed, compliance programs are upheld, and that end-users understand the benefits of legitimate software.

Each year, BSA investigates thousands of unlicensed software cases which harm software publishers and their brands and exposes customers to a wide range of risks.