Slashdot Mirror
MS Gives Free Licenses To Oppressed Nonprofits
victorl19 writes "Microsoft is vastly expanding its efforts to prevent governments from using software piracy inquiries as a pretext to suppress dissent. It plans to provide free software licenses to more than 500,000 advocacy groups, independent media outlets and other nonprofit organizations in 12 countries with tightly controlled governments, including Russia and China."
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/09/13/221216/Microsoft-To-Issue-Blanket-License-To-NGOs
If slashdot didn't have a shitty search feature, maybe mods could find reposts easier. Just sayin.
http://CryoLANparty.com/ A lan I'm staff on!
So basically, they're taking a bunch of organizations in countries that probably have a 95% or higher piracy rate, and giving them free licenses.
So it's costing Microsoft essentially squat, but potentially improves human rights in said countries.
Commendable, but not exactly as philanthropic as MS probably wants to come across as....
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
Microsoft fundamentally believes there are some who will never pay for the software. Crackdown too hard on them or be too successful in preventing piracy, they might defect to Linux and open free software. So it did not try too hard to fight piracy. But the dissenters in oppressed countries might better served by specific hardened distros from Linux camp than by the free offerings from Microsoft. You never know if it has shown the source code to these governments or allowed them to install back doors.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
My god, how low will this company stoop for a dollar? Now they pretend they are displacing competitive software not because it will earn them more money, but because they are feeling charitable. Everyone knows it's a charade, except the dim bulbs who can't read past a headline. Go ahead Microsoft, take more money from the stupid people who support your shallow pretense. They're the only one who buy your crap anymore, you make the rest of us sick.
Not fast enough. You need more pr0n!
Microsoft, in its recent press efforts, has shown it is very concerned about free and open software. So now Microsoft is trying to disguise itself as a free and open software vendor. A crack dealer will give away free samples to obtain and retain a customer......
Think again. Not doing it would a public relations disaster of epic proportions. As it stands it's an averted one. A narrowly averted public relations disaster.
The fact that they had to be told in the first place means they were well behind the curve -- as usual. I mean, seriously, they're the biggest software corp on earth, every resource you can think of. Think of what they didn't manage: A laid-back press conference saying they'd noticed years ago and quietly gave everyone they could think of a refund and free licenses. It's something you give your anti-piracy lawyers discretion to do, and hope to keep it quiet because of the abuse inherently possible with that, not something you want to have the nytimes splash all over the front page, forcing you to make an equally grand gesture to convince everyone you're not that evil.
FTFA: “We clearly have a very strong interest in ensuring that any antipiracy activities are being done for the purpose of reducing illegal piracy, and not for other purposes,” they say now, but that isn't what they always said: “Microsoft had long rejected requests from human-rights groups that it refrain from taking part in such cases, saying it was merely complying with Russian law.”
It's damage control, is what it is.
celebrate Microsoft's initiative and commitment to making this world a better place. I will write a personal letter to whoever made this decision if I can find out who saying the same.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
This is just damage control. Microsoft got egg on their face a while back when they backed "piracy" raids, so now they're trying to provide the illusion of remorse and "make things right" so the Slashdot/Linux crowd can't use it as ammo against them and their anti-piracy campaign.
America sucks. Where's my free copy of Office 2010?
Linux should really do this too. Oh, wait..
they're going to need to open source windows to try and win the dough.
It plans to provide no cost, no freedom software licenses to more than 500,000 advocacy groups
Free can mean more than one thing. Gratis MS products enables a lower cost of entry into slavery.
Oh gosh, whatever you say retarded fanboy is irrelevant. Microsoft or any other vendor does not have a responsability to fix all of the world problems. You got so much hatred that you are incapable of recognize a good deed from a socially responsible company.
At least they're doing something good.
And what are you doing to help those organizations?
And here you are bitching and whinning about it.
By the way, I'm surprised that no one complains about other supermillionaire it leaders for their little perhaps lack of philantropic work. Cupertino rings any bell? (to be fair they might like some privacy), but in this day in age, it's almost impossible for the world not to know what they do, inc family vacationing in Japan, on their private jet...
What the Russian gov't is doing to the political opposition is criminal. Odds are that M$'s motives aren't pure as I'm sure someone, if not the originator of the idea, knew M$ would get good PR in the West for their actions. If one grants that their ulterior motives are impure it only underscores the beauty of what M$ is doing: Giving the Russian gov't a dose of their own medicine. What M$ is doing is along the same lines as Russia in that they are both doing something that they know will get good PR in the West but with 'hidden' self-serving ulterior motives. Russia deserves a dose of its own medicine. Kudos to M$ for poking the Russian gov't in the eye, even if M$ gets some benefit from it!
To those who point out the possibility/fact that Russia will just find some other pretext to appear to be legally cracking down on the Oligarchy's enemies, this doesn't mean that simply rolling over and giving up because that could/will happen is the correct course of action. If the opposition does that, then Russia will just continue to be the frakked up entity it has been since at least the time of Kievan Rus'.
First oppressed by the governments, and now oppressed by using Microsoft products. There is no mercy in this world.
wow, that's harsh.
it would be far less cruel to just leave them to the tender mercies of the secret police and torture squads.
Aleksandr Ponosov was charged with illegal use of unlicensed (pirate) copies of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office on 12 computers being used in the school (article 146.3 of the Russian Criminal Code) and of damnification of 266,593.63 rubles (about 10,000 USD) to Microsoft Corporation. The charges could result in 5 years of imprisonment.
As a result of the pilot programs, in October 2008, Russian officials mandated that all schools use open source software.
Followup article
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Non-profit organizations tend to be of the community centered local skills development political lean.
If they are true to their ideology they should be using open source.
Using Microsoft software is not very community focused and even if they are not paying for it they are supporting the monopoly through futher extending the install base. And the talent level in local software is limited to install the software and if it fails, reinstall it.
This is ridiculous. I thought Slashdot was finally over this kind of thing?
I'm sorry man, I lost you after the third dollar sign. No one will take your arguments seriously like this, anymore than anyone would take someone obviously biased against FOSS repeatedly using terms like "linsux" or "open sores".
How is a legal copy going to stop an "inquiry." Someone can have an inquiry that I've got a panda fighting ring in my basement and it being not true doesn't mean they can't investigate (or pretend to). I think maybe they just used the wrong word because it sounds like governments are using actual proof of piracy against them though.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
Those software cost money to produce, so giving them away for free to another country's customers is obviously dumping by any measure.
So those countries can complain to WTO that USA is dumping IP products to their country and apply import taxes on these licenses, then they can bust those organizations for "tax evasion" instead of piracy. What's more, since Microsoft gave them those licenses, they can "investigate" Microsoft for "assisting tax evasion" as a payback.
Brilliant.
Oliver.
from what I recall from this old story, there was lots of noise about using open source software instead of Microsoft's because of how the government was using the licensing issues to dig into the computers. The move was to push for completely replacing Windows and Microsoft software because at that point there is nothing but a public relations issue for the government if word started getting out there was nothing to warrant the searches.
This isn't unlike how Microsoft, via the BSA, was going after US School systems to get them to sign expensive licensing contracts.
The BSA would force an expensive audit and find some unlicensed software. There would be hugely expensive fines or Microsoft would agree to just an expensive multi-year license agreement and forgive all unlicensed software fines. The school systems were discussing this and some just jumped off of Windows and started to show how the others could too. Microsoft and the BSA pulled out and offered much cheaper licensing deals. The jumps to GNU/Linux and open source software dropped off.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
For anyone who wants to see the link without being prompted to register to nytimes.com:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/world/17russia.html
Who do you think lobbied for laws that let government meddle in software licensing?
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
Movement to Overthrow MS Tyranny.
Can I have a free MSDN license?
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
The idea here is to emulate the good press Google got fighting the Chinese.
Mod parent up (funny).
It's great the way the Microsoft astro-turfers have clearly been preparing for this story so much that they even jump on each other's postings as being MS
Or put another way Whooooosh... the sound you hear is a MS attack squadron coming in to kill NCO baby Bambies. Or possibly a joke.
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
Piracy is much better than the alternative, using the alternative happily. Making a feel-good story out of giving to people what they have already taken that they cannot pay for must be such a cool result for a middlemanaging doublespeak specialist!
s/being MS/being anti-MS/ ... sorry; clearly to funny for me :-}
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
All of you are a bunch of uncritical bozos. I applaud Microsoft for stopping the russian government from eviscerating any NGO they don't like because they run pirated software.
Uhh nuh, let's start me daiye to going to the slashdot to bash teh microsofts, I must am l33t.
don't click...
I think Microsoft, because of its long tradition of foul play and , has reached a point of no return where anything good they might ever do will always be received with suspicion and distrust. They've got no one to thank but themselves.
Knowledge is power; knowledge shared is power lost.
You should be fine. LSD trips can last several hours, but they don't tend to have long-term effects. Stay calm, and good luck! :)
Le français vous intéresse?
... Microsoft will be sponsoring Wikileaks, too?
Microsoft now oppresses you.
It's a corporation that watches out for its bottom line and does what it can to eek out a profit. I am a big user of open source software, and I turn down jobs that are primarily Microsoft based, but its because I like OSS tools and am use to them.
There are many people who feel the opposite way. They love Microsoft development tools and feel quite comfortable in the Microsoft environment. They believe Microsoft has done a lot to get computers and technology into the hands of billions of people. They like to point out the fact that millions of people could legitimately use OSS tools like Linux and Open Office for free decide to pirate Windows and Microsoft Office instead.
There were many questionable Microsoft practices in the past and there are probably a few going on today. This was because Microsoft took the competition of OSS tools more seriously than most people did back in the 1990s and feared the openness of the World Wide Web and Internet back when most people didn't even know what it was.
What Microsoft is doing in this case is fantastic. They are trying to enforce the proper licensing of their software on a global basis. They are doing this with cheaper software versions in developing countries and working with governments to enforce licensing regulations. After all, that's how Microsoft makes money.
It's a strategy that has been working. In China, the rate of piracy has declined - much of it is in large enterprises. Microsoft probably now earns billions in China through there effort to get users to license their software. Microsoft knows that this is a long term battle -- getting users and governments use to the concept of paying for software they pirate, but their efforts have been working.
Now, Microsoft is reversing itself in places where governments are using pirated software as an excuse to shut dissent. Giving out free licenses isn't directly hurting its revenue. These dissident organizations are small and as you point out, it doesn't cost Microsoft a penny to give out licenses.
However, imagine how this hurts Microsoft's efforts to get governments to enforce licensing in their society as a whole. The Russian government and businesses are just starting to pay licensing fees for their software. With Microsoft's move, this effort to enforce licensing will now grind to a halt. This is a great potential revenue loss for Microsoft and probably sets back their goal to stamp out Microsoft software piracy in those countries by two decades.
It doesn't matter what you think of copyright, Microsoft, software licensing, or open source software. It basically comes down to Microsoft giving up revenue and turning over its long term fight to get licensing revenue outside of the developed world.
Yeah... because no one in Russia or China would pirate a copy of MS Office! HAAAA HAAAA. Good thinking, Microsoft.
And who says microsoft can't be good, and do good deeds? :)
Yet again MS is doing good deeds, helping those in need. Gates might not be in the helm anymore, but no one can argue that Gates wouldn't be a humanitarian.
I know, this is /. and MS bashing is forte, but yeah, i'm kinda MS fanboy when it comes to desktop, and work productivity :) Nevermind, they actually do make GOOD hardware too, keyboards are way better than Logitech's for example. 2 best keyboards i've ever used have been Microsoft products, and they are overwhelmingly in their own class. I just sold a highend logitech keyboard i had been using for couple weeks, because it sucked compared to low end microsoft keyboard. Some keys in odd positions was the main reasons.
I keep trying linux at desktop, but it fails there utterly time after time again. But i wouldn't put windows as a server, unless AD, Exchange, SharePoint are required. AD, Exchange and SharePoint are excellent pieces of software.
Long story short, i'm very glad MS is doing this, enabling nonprofits to legally enjoy the superior productivity offered for getting their work done, and thus getting protected from using piracy as an excuse to oppress.
Sure, one of the points on doing this probably was goodwill PR, but it doesn't negate the fact they are doing this.
Pulsed Media Seedboxes
This move by Microsoft is going to reassure the countries in question that these NGOs are working to undermine the current governments. Getting 'philanthropic' protection from one of the greediest of corporations? You really believe they are going to believe it? This move will ensure even stricter raids & oppression of NGOs, for what it's worth...
These are "oppressive governments" we are talking about here, right? So now when they raid you looking for licenses, they burn any they find, and, then they shut you down for operating on unlicensed software. Heck, if you are using Linux they could still do it. You'd have to go to court to prove them wrong. Their court.
If they want you, they have you, laws be dammed.
In other news, Microsoft was questioned by several media outlets on Monday morning about a recently discovered build of MS Office labeled 'MSOffice.trojanhorse' which was given for free to several so-called 'Oppressed Nonprofit' organizations. The software giant did not release a formal statement, but did advise one reporter that "all 'MSOffice.trojanhorse' users should keep their internet connection up while using their free copy of the office suite." ;)
using System.Awesome;
Yes, I realise that countering AC lies one by one is like trying to stop a hurricane by blowing in the opposite direction.
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
not create problems because of that to the very people they supposedly exist to help, see http://stop.zona-m.net/node/200
So the NSA can identify more easily the information it gathers through M$ backdoors
Youp, I'm coward
Good for you MS!
However, I will remind the dissenter that it is a lot easier to exploit your Win box and view all your private docs then it is to exploit a Linux box.
Also, most of your applications will also be free... so you won't have to worry about Adobe lawyers and other Nazi's knocking on your door next time.
Who said anything about poking Linen?
Please don't use URL shortners.
For URLs in posts on Slashdot, I can agree. But for URLs in signatures, which are limited to 120 characters, what do you recommend?
You be trippin' homey :P
Requiem for the American Dream