[KLUG Members] Re: Why does "Software Morality" differ from the rest?

[Jamie McCarthy]

b.j.smith@ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) writes:

> Right now, Microsoft is treating every company as their
> "personal bitch."  They are sending out threatening letters to
> various companies.

I work for a company that (up until a couple of months ago) had
"Linux" in its name.  In the last 30 days, three separate managers
in my company emailed me to ask me to confirm my Windows license
number, whether I was using any of thus-and-such commercial products
on my company computer, whether they were paid for and whether I
could prove I had the licenses...

I am running Linux on my company computer and have no commercial
software except the copy of Windows which we of course paid for.
(It's on a partition I haven't booted in probably a year.)

If *my* company -- probably (along with Red Hat) the world's leading
corporate supporter of open-source software -- if *my* company feels
it has to comply with this non-governmental organization's demands,
imagine how other companies fear The Letter!
--
 Jamie McCarthy
 jamie@mccarthy.vg