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U.S. Army Warns Microsoft To Back Off
declan writes "My CNET News colleague Ina Fried has written an interesting article today about how the U.S. Army has told Microsoft to stop sending free CD-ROMs of Office 2003 to government employees. In what's effectively a cease and desist order, the Army said: 'Your offer of free software places our employees and soldiers in jeopardy of unknowingly committing a violation of the ethics rules and regulations to which they have taken an oath to uphold.' Whoops! Perhaps this is Microsoft's latest way to fight free software at the Pentagon. Remember that just 8 months ago, the Army paid $471 million for Microsoft licenses."
Yep... I'm in the navy and this new item hit the streets last week (I considered submitting it as a story--oh well). We had guys and civilian contractors in our building getting free copies of office. My hate for ms reached a new high--talking about caught red-handed trying to plant seeds that will secure them--argh.
Separately, as a member of the military and despiser of the pitiful quality of ms products, I've always been strongly concerned about the military's use of ms products. The military, like many parts of the government, subcontract-out most tech work and implementation. The contractors, with sealed pay rates and support plans, have no problem deploying huge ms flagships at given branch or sub branch of the military (and then forwarding all the licensing bill to uncle sam). In other words, the root concern is that senior military folks that make the money decisions, need to get the job done but don't have a technical background (ie, to them, linux, microsoft, a server, source code, hacking, and TCP/IP are all one and the same). The contractors drum up offers, the military takes one, and--wham--the US gov't is now shelling out to ms in huge numbers and there's no one who looks at and says, 'is this the best way we could be doing it?'
If you've been around the government, you know what I mean about how scary the contractors are in terms of quality and knowledge when it comes to industrial back-end technologies. I'm on shore tour now, but when I was on my sub, you'd see these people doing a software install by blindly reading out of a SPAWAR procedure. I'd ask them stuff as they went along to gain knowledge and tips, but I usually got back a sheepish "I'm not sure". Grr...
Andy
G-Force music visualization
but can they stop AOL cds as well? stemming that tide is well-nigh impossible.
turn up the jukebox and tell me a lie
And you know what, there's a reason for it. Others where I work got copies as well, and they are already pushing for us to get an Exchange server. There are many features in the new "Office System" that require server support. When you try to use a feature that requires support on the server, a message pops up about how you need to contact your systems administrator to find out how to enable this great new feature.
Now we just need the Army to go after spammers, SCO, and the like.... and back it up with tanks! lots of tanks!
Office XP, Visual Studio
you sell? I would like a copy of all of them. You
know my address.
Thank you,
Anonymous Coward
Microsoft: Hey, looks like you dropped a 50 dollar bill... /wink
;)
Army: Were you just trying to bribe an army official?
Microsoft: Uhh, no..that must have been mine!
lol, thanks slashdot. I needed a chuckle.
Its actually interesting to read this, I just assumed that things like these happen all the time. Its nice to see safegaurds such as this in place AND functioning.
["The department, which oversees national parks and other federal lands, concluded last month that the software constituted an unacceptable gift--one valued at more than $20 and from a party with whom the department does business or whom it regulates."]
The article goes on to mention how many govt are looking into open source
...they had absolutely no interest in AOL's high-speed technology and were threatening unilateral action.
Army: Stop sending us your products. .
Microsoft: What if we don't?
Army: We'll make you
Microsoft: You and what army?
Army: . .
Microsoft: Oh.
I want the fire back.
If I were to mail unchecked binary files to senior officers and ask them to run them without verifying the contents for trojans, worms or viruses the Department of Homeland Insecurity would likley have me shot in their Happy Fun Camp at Guantanamo.
And unlike a certain company *I* don't have a criminal conviction, a record of giving things that could hurt national security to the Chinese (Windows source code) or a past history of underhand payments to subvert the political process!
Where is the justice in that?
Beep beep.
I was on the carrier USS Kennedy the other day I remember seeing virtually every computer terminal onboard running MS Windows in some form or another. I didn't see the nuclear portions of the ship, but you never know...
I'm still trying to figure out why people still use or pay for a word processor?! Seems silly to actually buy a suite for over 400 bucks USD. I love OpenOffice on the Windows side, and it runs on Windows 95 machines flawlessly.
http://www.geocities.com/baddsectorr
My dad used to work in the contracts office in the Air Force and you couldn't accept anything that could be considered a gift. (IIRC there may have been a monetary cap on what you could accept but it was really low; even legitimate things like Christmas baskets or company tchotskes were frowned upon, which kind of weirded out suppliers the first time they dealt with the military since it could come across as rude when an Airman tells you to take your fruit basket home with you). Violation of this was taken very seriously. As big and established as MS is -- not to mention the fact they've dealt with the gov't on a contractual level for over 20 years -- this is a pretty boneheaded move. They should have known better and whoever authorized this should get shit-canned.
Um. $500 retail is crap.
Fair is fair, use the same value they do when calculating their "$90000000000 billion lost to software piracy!" figure.
Beep beep.
I am a Network Admin Here in AK and I can tell you that one of the most poisonous aspects of .Mil networking is Civillians. The other is the decisions made by Command Sections who are only interested in one thing, Budgets.
It sucks being told that your decision base on good sound Tech principles is not what they want to hear because of the cost involved.
The free software giveaway came about because a lot of paperwork is created in time with no war. Therefor people have to take their work home to get finished to make deadlines. So leadership said take a copy home install it. The Mil makes you use it. you have to get the work done so you are entitled to a free copy.
Integrity is the hardest thing to keep.
Wonder what would happen if we all sent OpenOffice.org CD-ROMS to not only the Army, but to other government agencies? Seems like a fantastic marketing idea to me, and I dont think (?) that employees would be breaking ethics rules, since it is free software.
bash: rtfm: command not found
I bet the Army pays about $3 for small arms fire targets. These are perfectly free and visibly shatter when shot. Rather than complain, the Army should request that they send more to make our fighting troops better shots!
If it something is sent to me for free, it is um, well, free!
Here, take this gold bar, absolutely for free, it's a gift. You pay nothing, it costs nothing! And now, about that contract of ours...
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
Bill: apperantly we violated some rules regarding 'ethics'. You ever here of it?
Ballmer: I think there was something in a college course, but I'm not sure.
Bill: hmm, See if you can buy this ethics things, so we can get back to telling the government what to do.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
A while back when I was an IT monkey, I seem to remember Office2000 would install Outlook even if you specified not to, in the custom install. And don't get me started on trying to uninstall internet explorer...
This is why I turned to *nux and never looked back.
For quite a while Microsoft (and probably plenty of other software companies) has been donating software to schools and taking a tax write-off for the full retail cost. Not only is the first one free but it's apparently a tax benefit for MS.
I just returned from days of meetings that involved folks from the NMCI group, NSA, NIST, DoD, NAVSECGRU , CyberCorps and lots of others. I can assure you that within this area of the Fed (cyber-warfare, crypto, security, intel, etc.) that MS is a laughing stock. In the past this hasn't mattered terribly, but you have to understand that now things are very different. NSA/NIST (partnering as NIAP) now set the standard that all other agencies from the CIA down to the Dept. of Ag MUST follow. They establish the common criteria, define new directives and standards, etc. etc. aud nausiem. While MS isn't being thrown out, they are being gelded. It is a matter of time until the attitude held by these folks permiates the Fed as a whole. Linux is being pushed not becuase it's free, but because it's more readily secured. Much talk was bantied about on lots of OSS packages. I personally gave an impromptu class after hours to some of the less technical folks on installing and using Thunderbird + Enigmail + WinPT (GPG). Perhaps Linux/OSS truly is viral. It certainly is spreading as if it were. Keep the faith my friends.
I bet a lot of schools and charities would love that software.
I bet the kiddies would love a free bag of herion or crack, too. But does that mean you should donate one?
Let's not get another generation hooked on Windows.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Quoting from the article:
"Government Entities: Microsoft intends that this product be used in accordance with applicable laws and regulations for the evaluation, use and benefit of your government agency only," Microsoft states in the note. "You may, at your discretion, return this product package to Microsoft at its expense."
Okay, sending back at Microsoft's expense is easy. Just send it via UPS SonicAir same-day service. Doing a quick quote, from Texas (for example) back to Redmond would cost at least $264.94. Also, be sure to send it in the evening so that nighttime charges apply, and from obscure locations so the extended mileage also figures into the cost. If you do it right, you could get it up into the thousands depending on location (overseas stations?) and time of day. If there aren't any commercial flights, you can have UPS charter a plane just for your CD. Oh, and send each CD back separately for maximum effect.
When you absolutely, positively, have to stick it to Microsoft.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
As I pointed out when I submitted the story, Microsoft already makes copies of Office that time out after 90-days or let you register via CC during the trial period. You can get them at most Kinko's and so on, and certainly somewhere on Microsoft's website.
So if Microsoft true intention was to familiarize large customers with new features, wouldn't it make a lot more sense to send them:
a) a self-running slideshow/video showing demonstrations of the new features (a la Video Professor, autoplay and go)
b) the aformentioned 90-day trial edition so they could install and see how well it works and then turn around and requisition it if they find a reason to keep it
c) MSDN or other licensed version that has no restrictions but the EULA clearly states the copy is not legit and cannot be used for actual business (development and testing only)
Somehow I don't think that's what Microsoft is doing. What they are doing is handing out free license keys to what retails for $499+. That means whoever happend to open the colonel's mail could just slip the key in his or her pocket and take it home with them, register it on their home system and enjoy a free copy of an outragously priced package. I mean, if everyone gets a free copy for personal use, stands to reason when requisition time comes around, people will suggest Office 2003 like they have at home.
This is bribery. Just because they call it marketting doesn't make it any less unethical. Otherwise, why can't GM just hand over the keys to their new SUV so that people can become "more familiar with our new features"? A legit Microsoft license (the actual hologrammed piece of paper with the key on it) is just as tangible and valuable as any other real-world freebie.
-JoeShmoe
.
-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
The $20 / $50 rule is one of the key rules on employees accepting gifts from sources outside the government. This information paper is designed for employees of the Department of Defense (DoD).
1. General rule against gifts. DoD employees are generally prohibited from accepting gifts that are from a "prohibited source" or that are offered "because of the employee's official position." [5 CFR 2635.202(a)]
2. Definitions. The definition of "prohibited source" includes companies and organizations that do business or seek to do business with DoD. [5 CFR 2635.203(d)] A gift is offered "because of the employee's official position" if it is offered because of the status, authority or duties associated with the employee's Federal position. [5 CFR 2635.203(e)] "Market value means the retail cost the employee would incur to purchase the gift. An employee who cannot ascertain the market value of a gift may estimate its market value by reference to the retail cost of similar items of like quality." [5 CFR 2635.203(c)]
3. Exceptions. There are about 30 exceptions to the general rule against gifts. One exception, which is called the $20 / $50 rule, provides that an employee may accept gifts of up to $20 in market value per source per occasion, so long as the total market value of the gifts received (under this rule) from one source does not exceed $50 in a calendar year. [5 CFR 2635.204(a)] One may not accept cash under the $20 / $50 rule. [5 CFR 2635.204(a)]
4. Examples. Here are two examples of gifts that may be accepted under the $20 / $50 rule. First, an employee who gives a speech as part of her official duties may accept a thank you gift having a value of $20. Second, an employee may accept three $16 lunches from a DoD contractor in a calendar year.
5. Buying down to $20. If you are offered a gift that has a value over $20, you may not "buy the gift down" to $20. [5 CFR 2635.204(a)] For example, if you are offered a $21 ticket to a baseball game, you may not pay $1.00 to whomever is offering the ticket, and then accept the ticket under the $20 / $50 rule.
6. Combining items. If you are offered two separate items on the same occasion, and each item has a value under $20, and the items together have a value over $20, you may accept one of the items and decline the other. For example, if you give a speech as part of your official duties, and you are offered a $6 coffee mug and a $15 pen as thank you mementos, you may keep one or the other, but not both. [5 CFR 2635.204(a)(Example 2)]
7. Different sources on the same occasion. Under the $20 / $50 rule, you may accept gifts of up to $20 in value "per source per occasion." This means that the $20 limit applies separately to each company or organization that is offering you a gift on a particular occasion. Here is an example from the ethics regulation.
During off-duty time, an employee of the Department of Defense (DoD) attends a trade show involving companies that are DoD contractors. He is offered a $15 computer program disk at X Company's booth, a $12 appointments calendar at Y Company's booth, and a deli lunch worth $8 from Z Company. The employee may accept all three of these items because they do not exceed $20 per source, even though they total more than $20 at this single occasion. [5 CFR 2635.204(a)(Example 5)]
8. Impermissible gifts. If an employee receives a gift that cannot be accepted under the $20 / $50 rule (or any of the other gift rules), the employee must do one of the following (unless the item is accepted by the agency under specific statutory authority). If the gift is a non-perishable tangible item, the employee must either return the item to the donor or pay the market value of the item to the donor. If the gift is a perishable item and it is not practical to return the item (such as flowers or a fruit basket), the item (at the discretion of the employee's supervisor or ethics official) may be given to an appropriate charity, may be sha
Um. $500 retail is crap.
Even if it's $5.00, it was my duty in the Navy to say no. I worked supply for a while and I would not even permit a vendor to buy my lunch. The military persons who accept the free copies are in violation of several standing orders and could be literally get 20 years at hard labor at a nice gated community in Kansas.
-- $G
I bet a school could really save some money by getting those "free as in beer" copies of Office.
But hey, why should schools save money?
So software, claiming to be from Microsoft with a free license, is arriving at Army posts.
No doubt it's intended to be installed by army personnel and used as an office suite while processing internal messages, right?
If anybody on the command staff is thinking clearly, anybody who actually INSTALLS such an abomination has a LOT more to worry about than an Ethics violation.
Just think: If you were in the Army would YOU use free-in-the-mail software to process sensitive military information?
This is no joke. Battles have been lost because the size and location of the forces were betrayed by such things as an intercepted order for toilet paper.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Unfortunately, due to the current conflicts our choice of couriers is limited, so we will have to return the CDs by loading them in pamphet-dispersion canisters and dropping them on your Redmond, WA offices.
Love,
The Army
But that's just spreading the monopoly even further. I don't want my local school district to get Office for free. I want them to have to caugh up $25k out of thei extremely small budget for licenses. I want it to cost them a much as it can. Hopefully someone will eventually realize that they can do it for a whole lot cheaper with Macs or Linux boxes. Also you can bet that every single free copy of Office or Windows they give away is one they automatically count as a new user, even if the user uses the CD as a coaster. That's not fair either.
That doesn't square at all with my experience... former Air Force talking here.
Most pilots are bright folks, they just stumble when confronted with an area where they have no background or training (like anyone). If you're starting from scratch, Linux is just as intuitive as anything manufactured by microsoft.
Incidently, the Air Force has plenty of tech-saavy people, often in the form of reservists. I've had systems guys in deployed locations who were company-grade officers... but senior software engineers at major corporations, often using linux on-the-job. Many of them hated our reliance on MS products, and looked for ways to use more-functional things every chance they got. Good grief... our NT servers in Saudi Arabia had to be rebooted monthly or they'd simply cease to function (don't even get me started on service packs).
MS is not the way... it is a way, and that's all you can say. Pilots are more than swift enough to use linux if you gave them a little training.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
The real goal of the program isn't gifts, it's the tried-and-true microsoft crowbar they use to get into any organization. One key 'early adopter' or in this case recipient of the software starts using the system. Then everyone who works with this person is forced to upgrade as the old versions are incompatable with the new version.
Government employees are a great target for this because it forces all the non-governmental organizations that work with the government to get licensed for the software or face not being able to exchange documents.
-- Greg
Slashdot, would a spell-checker for posting be too much to ask? It's not rocket science!
Since Microsoft introduced software activation, it has bin harder for non technical persons to pirate windows
Could it be that Microsoft have discovered that the pirating done by home users did a good job in promoting their software as these users never would buy a full price copy anyway. But if they use it at home they would still be able to recommend it to friends and employers and help MS to help the MS-Office document file formats to being regarded as a defacto standard..
If they get MS-Office for free, Microsoft may think that these home users are less likely to use OpenOffice.org at home, only to discover that it is very compativle withe the MS-Office suite and largely offers the same value as their expensive package. And then they are less likely to show their boss, or install it at work perhpas preventing Microsft from selling other products such as Exchange and database servers.
Giving free software to employees companies and government agencies that have large Microsoft contracts is probably just the beginning.
In fact I would notbe surprised Microsoft to bundle CDs with Windows and Office with every computer magazine you buy. The sofware will be licenced for private use only.
God is REAL! Unless explicitly declared INTEGER
Comment removed based on user account deletion
At least they were when I worked for a major defense contractor in the '80s. Their rule was $0.00 - absolutely no gifts whatsoever. Not even a Big Mac for lunch or a coffee mug from a vendor/subcontractor's rep or a US Government agent or member of the military (our customer).
Violations were a firing offense. My employer took ethics quite seriously, at least after some engineers and managers were caught taking bribes & gifts from vendors in the mid '80s. They were promptly fired and blackballed from the industry. Their clearances were permanently revoked so it was legal.
Microsoft should properly be stripped of all government contracts for this violation. Too bad it won't happen. Bill Gates is Bill Gates.
Microsoft's VP of Customer Service is Helen Waite. If you are having problems with their products go to Helen Waite.
I was watching a television show on the history of weapons used in the American Civil War. Colt Firearms did something similar. They sent beautifully engraved and inlaid Colt revolvers to many generals and public officials. They were just gifts, but it was an obvious attempt to gain influence with decision makers in the government.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
I design flight sims for the US military - our older products are on IRIX, our newer ones are Linux-based. Not an M$ system in sight - they just don't cut it for flexibility and reliability.
www.sjbaker.org
I'm sure this has been said a few times... but as an IT manager, I've already recieved three copies of Office2k3... one was sent to the last IT manager before me, one was sent to a name resempbling slightly mine (I never registered with them, but they call plenty to have figured my name out from other people at my company) and one for the Vice president right above me. It has to be apparent to EVERYBODY that the only way they can get lock in is to get as MANY people using thier software whose file formats are unreadable without the software. How do you do that? You get a few executives who may or may not have computer experience to use it, they send files to people who can't use them, and suddenly they say 'Well, IT, why can't they open them?' ... you say 'Well, because you have the newest version and they're using the old version/the Open version.' ... voila. Suddenly the upgrade is hurried because you can't see the one new feature that VP wants that the other copies don't do.
I'm sure people still realize that the reason nobody bought office 2k for so long was because there was backwards compatability. People didn't need to upgrade until outlook 97 became a virus trap and you had to upgrade just to get rid of it.
Now they need to start the lock-in again. I'm sure people all over the world were seeded with this software in an attempt to continue the cycle...
- Brett
how come it is so expensive in the stores? Can they afford to give it away? If so, can they afford to lower their price in stores? Hmmmm.
Sig it.
One thing the CNET article fails to point out is that the federal ethics rules governing gifts to federal employees are government-wide, not just for DOD, Interior or any other agency.
o therdocs/fp o_files/reference/rfsoc_02.txt
o therdocs/fp o_files/pamphlets/phgiftsfrmout_98.pdf
... and we basically could only $49.95 for nonfederal subscribers because that way the federal employees were only excepting a "gift" of that amount.
That includes the $20/$50 gift limit ($20 for a single gift, $50 total for all gifts from a single source in a given year). All of this is administered by the Office of Government Ethics, an independent agency that used to be part of the Office of Personnel Management, another independent agency.
http://www.usoge.gov
The applicable regs are here, in S 2635.201:
http://www.usoge.gov/pages/forms_pubs_
Or there's a handy cartoon pamphlet:
http://www.usoge.gov/pages/forms_pubs_
I had to learn all about this because I used to work for a publishing company that was going to launch a magazine for federal workers that we were going to give to them for free
Now I work in a small consulting shop. Microsoft has a program and gives us *everything* for free for our internal use because they want us to push it onto our clients. I'm talking Office, Server, Exchange, Project Server, whatever. Some of the big-time VARs and integrators get deals too.
He mentioned this in a newspaper interview. Doesn't have to be an Office CD at all. You get yourself on the premises at a company, ask to use the restroom, and "accidentally" drop a CD-R on the floor with a handwritten label like "STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL - SALARY DATA". The CD-R would have a Trojan installed by Autorun.
I wonder if he realizes how many businesses have locked down their desktops with Group Policy settings.
MS Office 2003 may not be selling too well, but that is no excuse to give away free copies of it to government employees to boost marketshare.
Rather it would be better to give free copies to the education market that cannot truely afford it. Our college still uses MS Office 2000, and trying to do a PowerPoint XP/2002 Slideshow on a machine with Office 2000 and a Projector loses a lot of the special effects and other things.
Also interesting to note is the media copy protection that MS Office 2003 has in it. Another reason for avoiding MS Office 2003 and sticking with an older version of MS Office or going with OpenOffice.org instead. I can see novices copy protecting their documents that they need to share with others and then someone in a different department tries to open up a shared document and it won't let them, and they need access to the info ASAP. We already see this problem partically when novices set passwords on documents and share them and don't tell anyone else what the password is.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
Our armed forces have higher ethics and morals than 90% of the business executives in the world. They don't make the decision to start a war, never have and never will. Learn how to read the constitution.
The above post is from aflamebaiting troll.
Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
the guys with big toys that have the word "tactical" in the name...
Smooth move M$..
I'm willing to bet that the army, et al. can't accept gifts of ANY kind from ANYONE. Accepting free anything makes it seem like the army is taking bribes. That's a domain reserved for politicians.
Seriously, though, I work at a fast food restaurant. We're not supposed to give free or discounted anything to any government official (police, health inspectors, etc.) even in good faith, or in kindness, because it makes it seem like we're bribing them. The one exception is donating sandwiches to the fire department's fundraiser/awareness day thingy.
Military and classified networks are walled fortresses with complete isolation from the internet world. They do not tolerate breaches of this nature that puts classified data at risk. If even a laptop enters from the outside world, it will not leave without a complete wipe of the hard drive, memory, and any other removable media. No exceptions.
M$ Office Product Activation phones home over the Internet. That's a no-no in a classified secured area.
Someone at M$ is going to get das boot.
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
Fighting Free software with free software.
(Okay, I know they are two different types of free; hence the capitalization).
Well, the reason is that Office 2003 contains some very streamlined hooks into all Microsoft's new server products. Upgrading the Army to new versions of Office, even at an illicit grass-roots level, would bootstrap Microsoft's efforts to sell all the new server products. This includes Sharepoint Server, Content Management Server, Windows Server 2003 itself (of course), and Exchange Server 2003 (of course, of course). And, of course, if you use those products you'll naturally consider other new server products they're offering. Of course...
Consider this move of theirs with Office 2003 to be viral marketing at its best. Office itself still makes them a lot of money, but they know that they'll lose office desktop market share at some point if people can easily switch away from MS Office to other office products (which is getting easier all the time). So, if they make sure that there is tight integration between Office and their server products, you'll get locked in and won't (easily) be able to move off of Office, much less Windows.
But, what Microsoft forgot about gov't agencies in general, is that grass-roots marketing is a no-no. Strict hierarchies do not appreciate circumvention, especially where budget impacts may occur because of it.
Please mod this post only if you think others should/n't read this. I have enough ego^H^H^Hkarma. Thanks!