Microsoft To Issue Blanket License To NGOs

itwbennett writes "Following a recent report that Russian police have used software copyright raids to seize computers of activist groups, Microsoft announced it will issue a blanket software license to nonprofit groups and journalist groups outside the US. The new blanket license should remove software piracy as an excuse for 'nefarious actions' by enforcement authorities, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith wrote. The new license 'cuts in one swoop the Gordian knot that otherwise is getting in the way of our desired handling of these legal issues,' he said. 'The law in Russia (and many other countries) requires that one must provide truthful information about the facts in response to a subpoena or other judicial process. With this new software license, we effectively change the factual situation at hand. Now our information will fully exonerate any qualifying [nonprofit], by showing that it has a valid license to our software.'"

Comments

and the qualifier is... the F_CKING GOVERNMENT!

[Lead Butthead]

The local government decides what organization "qualifies" for exemption, as M$ must "obey local laws."
Wanna guess what organization will NOT be granted the exemption?

Re:and the qualifier is...

[TheSpoom]

Lesson over.

Go fuck yourself. I was commenting on the vastly more posts stating some sort of negative to granting a blanket license to NGOs. I don't say this often, but if this was Apple, everyone would be sunshine and kittens. Humor's great, and the GP was pretty funny (I've seen that meme in a few forms here), but if we just bitch at everything they do without appreciating the positive, we just look like children.