Right about now, the LUGs in Philadelphia and San Jose
might find their local school systems particularly
receptive to suggestions that they give Linux a try...
(excerpted from Edupage)
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MICROSOFT TO SCHOOLS: GIVE US YOUR LUNCH MONEY!
Microsoft and the Business Software Alliance (BSA), a coalition of
industry players, are including schools as part of their continuing
efforts to smoke out pirated software. Recent targets have included
the school districts of Philadelphia, where 264 schools are auditing all
copies of software currently in use, and San Jose, where the BSA demanded
$560,000 in reparations for between 50 and 100 illegal software copies.
Although that fine was negotiated down to only $50,000, critics say
Microsoft and the BSA have confused their priorities. Many of the
school districts under siege barely have enough money to fund basic
needs--Philadelphia, for example, has warned that it will not be able
to pay its staff next year without outside help--let alone the cost of
auditing entire IT departments and paying punitive damages. Microsoft
and the BSA claim that they are treating schools no differently from
how they would treat any other software pirate; in addition, as even
some educators have pointed out, Microsoft and its allies have provided
schools with assistance in developing systems to detect and prevent
software piracy. (Salon.com, 10 July 2001)
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