I am not going to provide the link to the BSA’s site that has some videos and photos (I am sure these are all actors and staged) about people who allegedly used unauthorized, proprietary software. But what I will provide is an opinion about how anyone can just walk away from the BSA nonsense and enjoy technology and be happy to share software.
Just stop using all non-free and non-freely-distributable software. Period.
Use only free and open source software (Fedora, Firefox, pidgin, Thunderbird, OpenOffice.org for example). If you are, unfortunately, locked-in into using Windows, you are able to still use the FOSS stuff mentioned earlier for that platform (and for Mac OSX as well). With that, you can just continue to laugh as to how much lower the BSA can go or raise the bar on sleeze.
Firefox isn’t free software, switch to Iceweasel or GNU Icecat.
RHEL?
Just wanted a clarification:
if someone downloaded and used RHEL without paying for support, and hence without getting any support is it considered violation of TnC?
Re: RHEL?
The question is quite easy to answer. If you have an eval, you can use it for 30 days and then, you are expected to stop using it. If you need to extend the trial/eval period, you are highly encouraged to contact the local office so that they can help you.
If, however, you continue with the eval copy (which is identical to the official copy) post the eval period, then you are bound by the terms and conditions are expected to deinstall it. However, I am confident that you would find RHEL meeting and exceeding your expectations that you would want to continue with it and then I would encourage you to contact the local office to see how best you can sign up for support.
Hope this helps.