Very interesting story about how BSA - (www.BSA.org) (bullies software alliance) is racketing companies and other organization on behalf of Microsoft...
Le mercredi 05 d?cembre 2007 ? 05:31 +0800, Yolynne Medina a ?crit : > > Hi All! > > I just need to forward this, interesting to read. > > regards to everybody! > yolynne > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Joel Kahn <jj2kk4 at yahoo.com> > Date: Dec 4, 2007 6:47 PM > Subject: [school-discuss] The BS Alliance > To: schoolforge-discuss at schoolforge.net > > > Christian Einfeldt wrote: > > >The BSA demanded an audit pursuant to the > >Microsoft EULA. The audit alone would have > >cost the Portland District $100,000.00. > >Microsoft just *happened* to send out its > >sales rep at the same time and offered to > >make the whole thing go away if the school > >district would just pony up for new licenses. > > >The PPSD told Microsoft no, and it became such > >a press issue, that Microsoft backed off, and > >as a result, the PPSD increased its FOSS usage > >to the point where many schools in the PPSD > >have no Microsoft products at all. > > This seems to be an appropriate time to take a > look at what Richard Stallman had to say on this > subject more than two decades ago: > > "There used to be people in the US . . . they were > in the Mafia--they would go up to stores and bars, > especially bars when bars were illegal, of course. > They would go up and say: `A lot of places around > here have been burning down lately. You wouldn't > want your place to burn down, would you? Well, we > can protect you from fires; you just have to pay > us a thousand dollars a month, and we'll make sure > you don't have a fire here'. And this was called > `the protection racket'. Now we have something > where a person says `You've got a nice computer > there, and you've got some programs there that > you're using. Well, if you don't want those > programs to disappear, if you don't want the > police to come after you, you better pay me a > thousand dollars, and I'll give you a copy of > this program with a license', and this is > called `the software protection racket'. . . . > > "What I hope is that when that software Mafia guy comes > up and says, `You want those programs to disappear from > your computer?', the user can say `I'm not afraid of you > anymore. I have this free GNU software, and there's > nothing you can do to me now.'" > > Here's where to find the entire (rather long) > piece by Stallman: > > http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/stallman-kth.html > > Of course, Micro$oft has been accused of racketeering > in the past; here's just one example: > > http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/31975/118/ > > Do any of you legal beagles out there have ideas > about how RICO may apply to the BSA? > > Joel > > > > > > ____________________________________________________________________________________ > Be a better sports nut! Let your teams follow you > with Yahoo Mobile. Try it now. > http://mobile.yahoo.com/sports;_ylt=At9_qDKvtAbMuh1G1SQtBI7ntAcJ > > > > > -- > ======================================= > Yolynne Medina > http://www.iosn.net | http://yolynne.wordpress.com > ym: yolynne.rm googletalk: yolynne skype: ynmedina > IRC nick: ulinskie server: irc.freenode.net > channels: #iosn #ubuntu-ph #ubuntu-women > "Laughter nourishes our Soul" > ======================================= > _______________________________________________ > Asiasource2-participants mailing list > Asiasource2-participants at iosn.net > http://lists.iosn.net/mailman/listinfo/asiasource2-participants
