Microsoft bullies schools inOregon

Post #36,138 by marlowe 4/22/02 4:16:50 PM Reply	Microsoft bullies schools inOregon [link\|http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/steve_duin/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/all_wire_stories/101386428029222529.xml\|Not that I have any sympathy for the public school system, but...] Excerpts: At the busiest time of the year for those districts, Microsoft is demanding that they conduct an internal software audit to "certify licensing compliance." In a March letter, the software giant gave Portland Public Schools 60 days to inventory its 25,000 computers. "Which," said Scott Robinson, the district's chief technology officer, "is a virtual impossibility." Ah, but wait. Microsoft has an offer it thinks you can't refuse, if only to avoid the audit: the vaunted Microsoft School Agreement. Under the terms of this agreement, a school or district simply counts its computers and pays Microsoft somewhere in the neighborhood of $42 per machine for one systemwide annual license. I say: If this doesn't violate RICO, then RICO is worthless. [link\|http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe/index.html\|http://www.angelfir...e/index.html] Truth is that which is the case. Accept no substitutes. If competence is considered "hubris" then may I and my country always be as "arrogant" as we can possibly manage.
Post #36,141 by a6l6e6x 4/22/02 4:30:35 PM Reply	This belongs in the Microsoft is GUILTY! forum. Alex "Never express yourself more clearly than you think." -- Neils Bohr (1885-1962)
Post #36,142 by Brandioch 4/22/02 4:33:39 PM Reply	I think it is legal. This is the way MS operates. This is MS's early goal. Annual licenses. A guaranteed revenue stream. Of course, it depends upon the type of license you have with MS. If you've purchased each copy individually, tell MS to get a warrant. If you've previously signed a license contract with them (most large sites have), then the verbage in that contract allows them to demand such audits whenever MS wants them. This is used to motivate those companies to different contracts. Looks like that school has fucked itself. Too bad. MS >ALWAYS< offers really, really, really NICE >INITIAL< licensing terms. MS knows that, without built-in, anti-piracy controls (Novell has had them for years), the ease of installing software will result in a nice bit of unlicensed software running at any company of any size. All MS has to do is sit back for a couple of years and then hit them with an audit and collect the new license fees (or collect the piracy fees). The amazing thing is how many sites have stood for these audits and still use MS software. Especially the ones who have had these audits and then gone 100% MS (with the resulting virus/worm problems). 100% legal, at the moment.
Post #36,148 by orion 4/22/02 6:03:33 PM Reply	Leave schools alone, go after Big Corps The Big Corps, or at least the one I was working for, are big time pirates. They buy a MSDN Universal subscription and install Visual Studio and Office and other things on all their production systems. I never seen them pay for a license, just install it or build a Ghost. An auditors nightmare or daydream? *I am free now, to choose my own destiny.*

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