MS Pressuring NW Schools: Pay Up, Or Face Audit

razvedchik writes: "As reported in this article in the Portland, OR newspaper, The Oregonian, Microsoft is pressuring 24 school districts in the northwest to agree to their Microsoft School Agreement licensing scheme or undergo an audit in 60 days. Multnomah ESD, which covers the greater Portland area and has around 25,000 computers, has to either decide to accept the license at about $500,000 or undergo the audit which it does not have time to prepare for. Of significant interest is the fact that a significant majority of these schools are experimenting with using Linux. Multnomah ESD has its own thin-client Linux distro called K12LTSP."

Slashdotted already!

[/dev/trash]

Predatory? Monopolistic? Customer-unfriendly? Microsoft? Say it ain't, Joe . . . and Steve and John and Scott and the rest of the computer tech supervisors at the 24 largest school districts in Oregon and Washington. At the busiest time of the year for those districts, Microsoft is demanding that they conduct an internal software audit to "certify licensing compliance." In a March letter, the software giant gave Portland Public Schools 60 days to inventory its 25,000 computers. "Which," said Scott Robinson, the district's chief technology officer, "is a virtual impossibility." Microsoft is well within its rights to call for an audit. Everyone says so. Everyone has read the contract. But school officials in both states are calling the audits "untimely," "outrageous" and "typical of Microsoft: not very bright." Many also consider the audit requirement a strong-arm tactic to push school districts into Microsoft's costly system-wide licensing agreements. "Given the fact that the letter came from their marketing department, and included a brochure about their school licensing agreement, this didn't seem terribly subtle to any of us," said Steve Carlson, associate superintendent for information and technology for Beaverton schools. "I have a more simplistic view," said John Rowlands, director of information services for the Seattle School District: "They just want to squeeze every nickel out of us they can." For sheer irony, it's hard to beat the fact that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is pouring millions of dollars into small, high-tech high schools even as Microsoft is looking for loose change at schools such as Jefferson and Marshall. The school districts are considered guilty of software piracy until they can prove they're in licensing compliance. If the district can't drum up the staff to manage the inventory, Microsoft is willing to show up with its own audit crew, but if a single computer is found with illegal or undocumented software, the district must pay for the audit. "This doesn't recognize any of the complexities of the educational environment," Robinson said. Many of the 25,000 computers in Portland schools were donated and arrive without pedigree or papers. "We're bubblegum and baling wire in terms of what we're putting on the desktops. For us to try to manage every donated desktop that comes in from a business or an individual is ridiculous." Ah, but wait. Microsoft has an offer it thinks you can't refuse, if only to avoid the audit: the vaunted Microsoft School Agreement. Under the terms of this agreement, a school or district simply counts its computers and pays Microsoft somewhere in the neighborhood of $42 per machine for one systemwide annual license. As Rowlands noted, IBM rolled out this idea years ago. Schools liked it because they could add hundreds of computers over the course of the school year and not pay for the additional software licenses until the next computer count. But Microsoft has put a new spin on the agreement, requiring an "institution-wide commitment." That means the district must include in its count not only the PCs, but all the iMacs and Power Macs that might conceivably use Windows software. What would it cost Portland Public Schools, which is already facing a $36 million shortfall, to sign that Microsoft School Agreement? "A rough number? $500,000," Robinson said, "which translates, roughly, into 10 teaching positions." No one at Microsoft -- and I dialed three different offices -- returned phone calls Friday to explain why the "random" audits targeted the nine largest school districts in Oregon and the 15 largest in Washington. Nor was anyone available to explain why Microsoft failed to notify the two groups chartered to represent the schools in licensing negotiations, the Oregon Educational Technology Consortium and the Washington School Information Processing Cooperative. "Everyone has a bad taste about the way this came down," Carlson said. "The audit is heavy handed; its non-participatory. Either they're starting out with the assumption that we're all crooks or they feel they can bludgeon school districts into their marketing agreement. It's clear they're not spending much time talking to the schools they're purporting to be supportive of." Thus, it's not surprising that several schools are asking, along with Robinson in Portland, "whether we want to continue with the Microsoft platform." One of the options is Linux, open-source software schools can run on their desktops free of charge and without a license. Linux is particularly useful on donated computers that aren't worth the $100 Microsoft charges for a software license. Paul Nelson, a teacher at Riverdale, and Eric Harrison with Multnomah ESD have developed a thin-client software called K12LTSP that runs Linux. In the last nine months, they've distributed the software to 5,000 schools. "Schools and government agencies that are paying for Microsoft Office are wasting money," Nelson said. "They should be using free software. A lot of this stuff has become generic. It doesn't take a fancy program to make something bold." R. Thor Prichard, the executive director at the Oregon Educational Technology Consortium, observed, "Microsoft has made it known they're concerned about Linux invading their territory. They're doing a lot of strategy building about eliminating Linux as a threat. Some of the districts they targeted are some of the districts doing initiatives in Linux." Subtle? Artful? Benevolent? Microsoft? That'll be the day

Re:I still don't under stand

[OptimizedPrime]

I'm assuming that they allready have some form or site or educational license. All of Microsoft's large licenses do contain contractual provisions that they are allowed to audit. However, I remember hearing that this has never been challenged in court. IANAL however.

Read the license

[wiredog]

When you install a (note that, "a") copy of any MS product then you are explicitly giving them the right to audit you.

Re:Slashdotted already!

[Anonymous Coward]

(edited for clarity)

Microsoft puts the squeeze on NW schools

04/21/02

Steve Duin

Predatory? Monopolistic? Customer-unfriendly? Microsoft?

Say it ain't, Joe . . . and Steve and John and Scott and the rest of the computer tech supervisors at the 24 largest school districts in Oregon and Washington.

At the busiest time of the year for those districts, Microsoft is demanding that they conduct an internal software audit to "certify licensing compliance." In a March letter, the software giant gave Portland Public Schools 60 days to inventory its 25,000 computers.

"Which," said Scott Robinson, the district's chief technology officer, "is a virtual impossibility."

Microsoft is well within its rights to call for an audit. Everyone says so. Everyone has read the contract. But school officials in both states are calling the audits "untimely," "outrageous" and "typical of Microsoft: not very bright."

Many also consider the audit requirement a strong-arm tactic to push school districts into Microsoft's costly system-wide licensing agreements.

"Given the fact that the letter came from their marketing department, and included a brochure about their school licensing agreement, this didn't seem terribly subtle to any of us," said Steve Carlson, associate superintendent for information and technology for Beaverton schools.

"I have a more simplistic view," said John Rowlands, director of information services for the Seattle School District: "They just want to squeeze every nickel out of us they can."

For sheer irony, it's hard to beat the fact that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is pouring millions of dollars into small, high-tech high schools even as Microsoft is looking for loose change at schools such as Jefferson and Marshall.

The school districts are considered guilty of software piracy until they can prove they're in licensing compliance. If the district can't drum up the staff to manage the inventory, Microsoft is willing to show up with its own audit crew, but if a single computer is found with illegal or undocumented software, the district must pay for the audit.

"This doesn't recognize any of the complexities of the educational environment," Robinson said. Many of the 25,000 computers in Portland schools were donated and arrive without pedigree or papers. "We're bubblegum and baling wire in terms of what we're putting on the desktops. For us to try to manage every donated desktop that comes in from a business or an individual is ridiculous."

Ah, but wait. Microsoft has an offer it thinks you can't refuse, if only to avoid the audit: the vaunted Microsoft School Agreement. Under the terms of this agreement, a school or district simply counts its computers and pays Microsoft somewhere in the neighborhood of $42 per machine for one systemwide annual license.

As Rowlands noted, IBM rolled out this idea years ago. Schools liked it because they could add hundreds of computers over the course of the school year and not pay for the additional software licenses until the next computer count.

But Microsoft has put a new spin on the agreement, requiring an "institution-wide commitment." That means the district must include in its count not only the PCs, but all the iMacs and Power Macs that might conceivably use Windows software.

What would it cost Portland Public Schools, which is already facing a $36 million shortfall, to sign that Microsoft School Agreement?

"A rough number? $500,000," Robinson said, "which translates, roughly, into 10 teaching positions."

No one at Microsoft -- and I dialed three different offices -- returned phone calls Friday to explain why the "random" audits targeted the nine largest school districts in Oregon and the 15 largest in Washington. Nor was anyone available to explain why Microsoft failed to notify the two groups chartered to represent the schools in licensing negotiations, the Oregon Educational Technology Consortium and the Washington School Information Processing Cooperative.

"Everyone has a bad taste about the way this came down," Carlson said. "The audit is heavy handed; its non-participatory. Either they're starting out with the assumption that we're all crooks or they feel they can bludgeon school districts into their marketing agreement. It's clear they're not spending much time talking to the schools they're purporting to be supportive of."

Thus, it's not surprising that several schools are asking, along with Robinson in Portland, "whether we want to continue with the Microsoft platform."

One of the options is Linux, open-source software schools can run on their desktops free of charge and without a license. Linux is particularly useful on donated computers that aren't worth the $100 Microsoft charges for a software license.

Paul Nelson, a teacher at Riverdale, and Eric Harrison with Multnomah ESD have developed a thin-client software called K12LTSP that runs Linux. In the last nine months, they've distributed the software to 5,000 schools.

"Schools and government agencies that are paying for Microsoft Office are wasting money," Nelson said. "They should be using free software. A lot of this stuff has become generic. It doesn't take a fancy program to make something bold."

R. Thor Prichard, the executive director at the Oregon Educational Technology Consortium, observed, "Microsoft has made it known they're concerned about Linux invading their territory. They're doing a lot of strategy building about eliminating Linux as a threat. Some of the districts they targeted are some of the districts doing initiatives in Linux."

Subtle? Artful? Benevolent? Microsoft? That'll be the day.

Reach Steve Duin at 503-221-8597, [e-mail] or 1320 S.W. Broadway, Portland OR 97201.

Links, Links, and more Links

[razvedchik]

The best way to help out in Portland is the following links:

K12LTSP Project [k12ltsp.org] with some associated links and contact information.

Portland LUG, who have been talking about this on their listserv. [pdxlinux.org]

A few Clarifications...

[Anonymous Coward]

1. The audit request does not specifically say that they can forego the audit by changing to the very expensive School License Agreement. It does point out, however, that the audit request came from the marketing department and included brochures and FAQ's for the SLA.

2. Most Schools purchase their MS software through Volume License agreements which have a clause stating that periodic audits are a term of the agreement.

3. The Oregonian article stated that if schools choose to have MS conduct the audit, they need to pay MS's costs if just one computer is found out of compliance. I believe the actual clause states that they need to be more than 5% out of copliance district wide.

Having stated this, I am an employee at one of these districts and the amount of work is staggering. I thought I was going to be the only Anti-MS zealot to see what a heavy handed tactic this is, so I am pleasantly surprised that many others see it and feel the same way.

FYI...I have posted Anonymously since my e-mail makes it easy to see who I am and which district I work for, and many here don't feel that getting rid of MS software is a good idea.

Keep passing the opem windows...

Re:Do the Math

[Pontiac]

The article cites 25,000 users and MS is offering the software for $500,000

That is $20 a copy. Deal with it or switch to linux. Yup, those horrible horrible businessmen

I guess you missed the part where they said this is an ANUAL FEE.. Every year the school will have to cough up half a mill to MS for licensing fees.. This is for PC's they already have lifetime licenses for but they don't have the time or resources to prove it.. Just having the fancy little scrap of paper isn't good enough either.. They want invoices to prove it was payed for too.

Want to do something about it?

[Steffan]

I just emailed the author of the article and I'm going to try to get in touch with the heads of the information department at the districts in Portland and Beaverton. I'm willing to donate my time and expertise to help them migrate systems where possible.

If anyone else in the Portland metro area is interested, send email to linux-school[at]zerog.net

It would be great to be able to line up a team of people to do migrations / training / auditing. I think there are few reasons why the district couldn't switch a majority of their machines over, leaving only the Windows machines that they absolutely require.

If nothing else, you have the opportunity to possibly reduce your tax burden, both as a resident, and as a deduction for your time.

Re:Something to volunteer for

[Col. Panic]

Great thought and I know of one such school that can use help. In Winter Haven, Florida a school is being built - all by volunteers. It is a 30,000 sq. ft. facility that has been under construction for three years. They hope to have it open for school in Fall '02.

Here is where we (you?) can help. They have cat5 pulled throughout the building, but none of it is punched down or connected to anything because they have no equipment yet. They need PC's, servers, punchdown racks, switches, and people to donate their time if they happen to be in the central Florida area.

If you have stuff or time to donate, please call Jim Durham at 863-299-1189 - he is the one leading the project.

And thanks.

Local schools

[technodude]

My son and daughter go to Washington county schools. My daughters classroom has a dozen or so assorted PC's. Most look like the licensing fee would be more than each computer is worth. And I would bet not one of them could run XP! It took 7 months for the parking lot to be repaved after it was torn up. Her teacher teaches both 4 and 5 graders in a combined class. Her school just does not have the budget to spend on Microsoft. My sons middle school seems to have faired better but by no means is any of the equipment state of the Art. If there is anyone from Washington county schools out there that needs a hand removing Windows from their systems, I'd be glad to help if I knew who to ask!

Re:Whatever happened to 'Innocent until proven gui

[fishbowl]

>Whatever happened to the concept of 'Innocent until proven guilty'?

It never applied to civil matters.

"Preponderance of Evidence" is the doctrine at
work in a civil case.

All you have to do to win a civil case is to persuade
a judge and/or jury that the facts are more probably
one way than the other.

Burden of proof beyond a shadow of a doubt, and
"presumption of Innocence" only apply to criminal
cases.

Anybody actually read the agreement?

[Kevinv]

Microsoft's School Agreement 3.0 [microsoft.com] (Word doc of course)

iteresting bit is that you must pay for all eligible machines, if they run microsoft software or not:

"School Agreement requires an institution-wide commitment. To that end, you must include all of the eligible PCs in the participating school(s) or district. Eligible PCs include all of the Pentium machines, Power Macs, iMacs or better. You must also include any number of 486 machines or below and any Apple, UNIX, or Windows Terminals on which any of the software will be run."

So if you sign up, then move to something else, you still gotta pay.

Not sure if you pay per package installed (i.e. do you pay for Windows OS on iMac's?)

Re:Plan of Action?

[Anonymous Coward]

I live in Portland, and the School District is already several million dollars short. They most definately DO NOT have "$500 K earmarked to come from somewhere". They are already firing teachers and cutting programs. Due to the recession, ALL school districts are in simular budget crises. For Micro$haft to kick them when they're down is REALLY going to piss some people off. In the long term, Linux advocates should be thankful -- this is the best marketing that's ever been done for Linux in the classroom, and it didn't cost us a dime!

Join forces with an Oregon LUG

[Fragmented_Datagram]

This is being discussed quite a bit on several of the Oregon LUGs. If you're in Oregon (or nearby) and would like to help, please join forces with one of these existing groups.
http://pdxlinux.org [pdxlinux.org]
http://lug.peak.org [peak.org]
http://www.euglug.org [euglug.org]

Re:Microsoft is to blame for piracy

[catfood]

IANAL, but, I've heard that people who have copyrights have to defend them if they want to hold onto them.

IANAL either, but you heard wrong.

Re:I live in Portland

[Kaiwen]

wouldn't Microsoft's bundling of the PC and license prove the school system right in this case?

One would think so, wouldn't one? But not in a Microsoft world. Microsoft insists on seeing the physical license. No license means non-compliance, time to cough up. What this means is that in the future schools will be forced to stop accepting donations unaccompanied by the proper license. What a shame.

I'm just glad I live in a country beyond the graspings of Microsoft.