I would just like to give kudos to Kaspersky Lab for leaving the Business Software Alliance (BSA) because of the organization’s support of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA):
Security research company and prominent antivirus software vendor Kaspersky Lab has announced its intent to withdraw from the Business Software Alliance (BSA) because of the Alliance’s support for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA, also known as H.R. 3261).
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) are the software industry’s two biggest trade groups. Since both groups have strong anti-piracy stances, neither directly opposed the Stop Online Piracy Act. Both expressed interest in working with Congress to design the law.
[…]
“Kaspersky Lab is aware of the public controversy and debates sparked by the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Kaspersky Lab is occasionally mentioned in the discussion as a member of the Business Software Alliance (BSA), which supports the SOPA initiative,” a statement from the security company said on Monday. “Kaspersky Lab would like to clarify that the company did not participate in the elaboration or discussion of the SOPA initiative and does not support it. Moreover, the company believes that the SOPA initiative might actually be counter-productive for the public interest, and decided to discontinue its membership in the BSA as of January 1, 2012.”
Good on you guys, I hope other software companies follow suit.