Microsoft Kills Office Licensing

[Greg Cox <coxg@uidaho.edu>]

  I have a story to report, which may or may not be old news to this group.
  According to an article at:
    http://www.news.com/News/Item/0%2C4%2C16045%2C00.html  
  
  Microsoft intends to stop licensing Office for concurrent useage.  This
  move will literally kill, or financially cripple, many Univeristies and
  large sites which depend on this sour suite of tools.  In my case, we will
  be forced to remove Office from all of our labs computers; we simply
  cannot pay for 800+ copies.  (the new deal disallows concurrent use, such
  as loading from a server and metering, as most large sites currently do;
  and instead demands a copy be purchased for every machine capable of
  running Office, ie with access to the server)
  
  This change reeks of bait and switch, drug dealer "build up their
  dependency" type of maneuverings.  I don't know if this type of issue is
  really relevant to this group discussion, but I submit it as one more
  example of Microsoft abusing their position.  They plan to stop concurrent
  licsensing suddenly; they have been providing this service for many years,
  and their product is entrenched.  NOW, they pull the rug out!  You can
  say, "Just buy Corel or Claris"..but our responsibility is to our clients,
  and guess what they know, like, and demand?  That's right, Microsoft
  Office!  
  
  I am taking other actions to rally support against Microsoft in this case,
  and to persuade them to reconsider.  But if anyone here could pass on some
  email addresses or phone numbers of Microsoft executives I would be most
  grateful.
  
  
  =====================================================================
   Greg Cox		'Net - coxg@uidaho.edu
   Computer Geek		Phone - 208-885-2079
   University of Idaho	FAX - 208-885-7539