On Tue, 2006-09-05 at 09:22 +0100, Andy Green wrote: > Just something to point people at in your organization who did not see > the benefits of a FOSS solution yet. Reliance on proprietary software > opens up an ugly licensing liability problem and Microsoft are actively > [1] using it to harass and shake down companies. > > '' ... > > AWC was contacted several weeks ago by Janet Lawless, a software asset > management engagement manager at Microsoft, who claimed that "a > preliminary review of [AWC's software licensing] information indicates > that your company may not be licensed properly." Lawless urged AWC to > "understand that the potential inconsistency in licensing is an urgent > matter and needs immediate attention." She wanted to send a consultant > to AWC to conduct an inventory of its installed software. > > Frantz was stunned. He says he always errs on the side of caution with > respect to software licenses. He does regular audits and maintains > extensive records of purchases, license keys and registration codes. > Frantz had no doubt that he was 100% compliant. When he told Lawless > that, she ratcheted up the threatening tone of her e-mail correspondence. > We only have 5 Windows machines, in our office all the rest are Macs or Linux/Unix machines. When they called us, I demonstrated that we had well over 10 licences for 5 windows machines, since all machines come with a licence even if we don't run windows, so I asked if I could get some rebates. I have never heard from them since then. ;^) > "Simply commenting on your licensing environment does not address our > concerns in a tangible, proven manner," she wrote. "We continue to > believe that Auto Warehousing may not be licensed properly. Since this > is a compliance issue, I am obligated to notify an officer of Auto > Warehousing of the situation and the significant risk your organization > may be subject to by not resolving this situation in a timely manner." > > At that point, Frantz got his corporate attorney involved. The > attorney suggested that an olive branch be proffered to avoid legal > action, so Frantz offered to send Lawless detailed records of all > purchases of Microsoft software in the past five years. But Lawless blew > that off as well. She seemed determined to get a consultant into the IT > bowels of AWC. > > "Thank you for your offer to send your purchase records to me," she > wrote, "however our Software Asset Management (SAM) program is the only > unbiased way to create an accurate baseline and resolve this matter." > How are their consultants supposed to make money, if you track your software licences yourself. I would do and internal audit, make sure all systems are compliant then, tell her to go pound sand.
