What's an organization like the Business Software Alliance to do when its No. 1 supporter becomes the sworn enemy of most of the sector it purports to represent? For Robert Holleyman, president of the BSA, having Microsoft on its roster is a mixed blessing. The BSA was formed in 1988 by the biggest PC software companies at the time. Today its members include Adobe Systems, Autodesk, Microsoft, Novell, and the Santa Cruz Operation. Its worldwide policy council includes representatives of Apple Computer, Computer Associates International, IBM, Intel, and Sybase.

The BSA is highly regarded for having maintained a narrow focus on software piracy. However, a few important names are notably absent from its list of supporters. Sun Microsystems, Oracle, and Netscape Communications refuse to join, largely because of the "Microsoft factor." Under the BSA's revenue-based membership-fee structure, Microsoft contributes the largest share of the alliance's $20 million budget. "The BSA is a Microsoft shop," says Peter Harter, Netscape's global public policy counsel. "Netscape doesn't agree completely with its positions, though we still respect its work on the issues."

Mr. Holleyman explains that the BSA enforces a one-company, one-vote rule, so concern about Microsoft's influence is unfounded. He offers other reasons that some holdout companies don't support the BSA. Sun, for instance, takes a different stand on piracy that focuses on maximizing the number of legal users. "Sun wants as many different types of software running on its hardware as possible, so it wants the lowest possible licensing fees," Mr. Holleyman says. And Oracle relies more on service revenues than the sales-based packaged software vendors that the BSA primarily represents.

The schism within the BSA's ranks illustrates the kind of factionalism that is endemic to the technology industry. Without a unified voice, the industry will limit its own ability to influence government policy. "We all need to be pulling in the same direction," says Microsoft public relations spokesman Mark Murray. The only problem, as the BSA's detractors see it, is that he means Microsoft's direction.