Re: [Fsfe-uk] Microsoft Schools Agreement

[Tom Chance]

Ian,

I e-mailed the head IT person in my old school (Bedford School) and he gave me 
this response:

----
We are using MSSA, and I appreciate the point in this email.  In fact, since 
we use Thin Clients/Terminal Servers fairly widely, even if we had a Linux 
box it would probably be running MS software on the TS, so the licensing 
would probably still be relevant to us . . .however, I agree completely with 
the sentiments of the email, and (following the principle) may well take up 
the point with the OFT.
----

I hope that's of some help? If you can suggest anything I can do, I'd be glad 
to hear it!

Regards,
Tom

On Wednesday 25 Feb 2004 12:48, ian wrote:
> As many will know, the OFT is investigating MSSA as it requires schools
> to pay MS an annual fee for every pentium based computer on a site even
> if its not running *any* MS software. ie if I want to put a GNU/Linux
> box on a network in a school on MSSA I have to pay MS an annual fee.
> This is clearly anti-competitive since although schools can pay for
> software licenses without signing up for MSSA, the lower costs of MSSA
> are a big inducement and once on it, its difficult to change because
> schools then have to pay the full price in one hit for all the software
> they currently use which can be 10s of thousands.
>
> I understand that the OFT are sending letters out to many schools asking
> them about their software purchases and implications. I am a little
> concerned that many have no idea of the implications of MSSA simply
> because they hadn't thought about GNU/Linux. eg a school might say
> yikes, if MSSA is declared void isn't this going to put my software
> costs up? I'd better say nowt. In this case the fact is that the
> monopoly has such a hold that its difficult to collect evidence of the
> type required to defeat it.
>
> So what can you do? If you have a relative in a school you could find
> out if the school is on MSSA and if so complain that you believe your
> relative could be being prevented from learning about GNU/Linux, because
> of restrictive licensing in the school designed to shut out Free
> software. GNU/Linux is likely to be very important by the time your
> child leaves school and so the child should have the opportunity to
> learn about it and MSSA is making that less likely to happen.
>
> The relevant address to write to is
>
> Neil Maxey
> Case Officer
> Media, Sports & Information Industries
> Office of Fair Trading
> Fleetbank House
> 2-6 Salisbury Square
> London
> EC4Y 8JX
> Tel: 020 7211 8343
> Fax: 020 7211 8354