Related link: http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-5188084.html?tag=st.lh
Well done to whoever championed this in MicroSoft! This is a move that other vendors of consumer applications should consider following, to prevent people trying to do good from criminalizing themselves. (Actually, vendors might consider
>going further.)
The story has an Australian connection: MS demanded that a charity here, PCs for Kids, cough up for licenses on obsolete software on donated second-hand computers. This queering of the pitch by MicroSoft met with widespread disgust here, though within MicroSoft's right; the kind of publicity disaster that sticks in the back of peoples' minds.
MicroSoft had reportedly heavied a similar charity in New Zealand earlier. (One of the more sickening aspects in that last link is the valuation of the requested 2,300 copies at $205,000: surely the cost to MicroSoft would only have been a few hundred dollars to send the disks and a license; there would be no sales lost. It is software for heaven's sake.)
In my warm, fuzzy moments, I cannot help admitting to myself that, because of the Gates Foundation's wonderful charitable donations, especially with HIV in Africa, the best thing for the world would be for MicroSoft to increase its monopoly share of markets, all things considered.
But I think it is important to distinguish between things "MicroSoft" does which are ultimately actions, good or bad, of people, and impersonal effects that the company has because of monopoly and near-monopoly effects: they are two different battlefields. When we lift the corporate veil, licensing policy is determined by people, influenced by corporate culture. However, fair development around the world ultimately requires a level-playing field, which monopoly (whether software patents, monopolistic pricing, or super profits) ploughs up.
So the laudable behaviour of MicroSoft people here does not lessen the need to cope with MicroSoft's corporate status and influence as a monopoly. But it is much better to have a nice monopoly than a nasty one.
In an interesting twist, the PC for Kids founder was subsequently sentenced for embezzlement. Funny old world.
Is Easter a good time for sinners to become saints?
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Microsoft IS nice
Are you saying that Mr Gates did not earn his money? That he is not free to with it as he wishes? That it is not HIM and HIS WIFE that decide what is done with their money?
That is what you imply when you associate Microsoft and Mr Gates's spending on charity.
My point is that they are not associated and that the company is reacting to a changing world.
Thanks,
Gerard
first use doctrine?
While this was a nice thing to do, I have to wonder if MS decided to settle for a PR victory rather than lose in the courts. In the US, its been shown time and again that the first use doctrine trumps the EULA. See eg the cases listed here.
of course this depends on the laws of individual countries, in the UK the copyright holder can apparently place some restrictions on resale (see eg the recent CDWow shutdown); although that was specifically about "re-export".
Microsoft IS nice
Some people seem to only ever want to make up arguments why MicroSoft is the great boogyman...
It's quite absurd to want to disconnect the Gates Foundation from the company.
Where do you think the billions in the coffers of the Gates Foundation come from?
Most of it comes straight out of the profits of MicroSoft via the salary and profit share of Bill Gates...
MicroSoft the company is also known to provide resources and funding to charity and law enforcement projects free of charge.
Many schools in poor areas in the US profit from free computers and software provided by MicroSoft.
Canadian law enforcement is using the first versions of software created free of charge by MicroSoft to catalogue and track child pornography and try to find missing children. This greatly reduces the amount of the garbage police officers have to look at when trying to build cases and has I believe already identified at least one missing child as being used as a victim in child porn movies and pictures.
If individual MicroSoft employees and departments react different from this, that can hardly be blamed on the company at large...
Microsofts "niceness" is reactive.
Microsoft is not nice. They are providing this new service as more and more computers are converted to the opposition.
Microsoft is providing better language support as a reaction to the superior language support provided by the opposition and because countries like Norway have stated that without support for Nynorsk they would not use Microsoft's products.
The money that BILL GATES spends on charity, is not money spend by Microsoft.
So, your argument is flawed.
Thanks,
Gerard