- "The issue comes up as many governments are looking
at open-source alternatives for Office and the Windows operating system."
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- Microsoft has been mailing free copies of its pricey
Office productivity software to government employees, but CNET News.com
has learned that at least two federal agencies are warning recipients to
return the gifts or risk violating federal ethics policies.
-
- Since the launch of Office 2003 last year, Microsoft
has given out tens of thousands of free copies of its flagship software,
which retails for about $500, to workers at its biggest customers. The
giveaway was expanded to government workers this year, but ethics offices
at the Department of the Interior and Department of Defense have said the
offers constitute unauthorized gifts and must be returned.
-
- The Department of the Army went a step further, calling
on Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates to stop sending the software to Army personnel.
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- "We ask that you cease immediately the mailing of
free software, and other types of gifts, to the Department of the Army
personnel," Deputy General Counsel Matt Reres said in a Feb. 19 letter
seen by CNET News.com. "Your offer of free software places our employees
and soldiers in jeopardy of unknowingly committing a violation of the ethics
rules and regulations to which they have taken an oath to uphold."
-
- The issue comes up as many governments are looking at
open-source alternatives for Office and the Windows operating system. The
British government has been evaluating a switch to the Linux OS, while
open-source software is also being eyed in Korea, China, India and even
at some local agencies in the United States.
-
- Microsoft's giveaway also comes as the company faces
ongoing oversight by the Justice Department as part of its settlement of
antitrust allegations.
-
- A Microsoft representative said giving away the software
is a way to let some customers experience new features. "The goal
of the program was to give customers a taste of the software and allow
them to learn how it might be of use to their organizations in a positive
way," Microsoft spokesman Keith Hodson said.
-
- Although Office has captured more than 90 percent of
the market for productivity software, convincing customers to upgrade to
the latest versions of Office has become a growing challenge for the company.
And upgrades are essential to Microsoft: Office and Windows produce substantially
all the company's profits.
-
- To address ethical concerns, Microsoft includes a note
with copies of the software letting government workers know that they can
send the software back to Microsoft without charge if receiving such a
gift violates their agency's rules.
-
- "Government Entities: Microsoft intends that this
product be used in accordance with applicable laws and regulations for
the evaluation, use and benefit of your government agency only," Microsoft
states in the note. "You may, at your discretion, return this product
package to Microsoft at its expense."
-
- Hodson said the company hoped such language would allow
any agency that did not appreciate the offer to easily send back the software.
-
- "Not every government organization, as we're learning,
finds it to be a valuable program," Hodson said. "We would like
to think that there will be a variety of government organizations that
will find value in the program."
-
- For now, Microsoft said it will continue the strategy
but will stop sending software to any particular agency that requests the
company do so. The software maker did not say how many copies of the program
have been sent to government employees.
-
- According to the Department of Defense, delivery of the
software was preceded by a card explaining that Office would be arriving
"in the coming weeks" and that the software was being sent "without
obligation."
-
- The Defense Department's Standards of Conduct Office
was among the first to take action, warning its workers in a Feb. 13 advisory
not to accept the software.
-
- "These items have been determined to be gifts from
a prohibited source, and may not be accepted by (Defense Department) employees,"
the agency said in its advisory. "If received, the items should be
returned to Microsoft."
-
- The ethics office of the Department of the Interior said
it had not heard reports of its employees receiving the software, but decided
last month to warn its 65,000 workers after hearing about the Department
of Defense's reaction.
-
- "We looked at it as a marketing gambit," said
Arthur Gary, deputy director of the Interior Department's ethics office.
"We just wanted to apply the gift rules to it."
-
- The department, which oversees national parks and other
federal lands, concluded last month that the software constituted an unacceptable
gift--one valued at more than $20 and from a party with whom the department
does business or whom it regulates. Since issuing the memo, Gary said,
the agency has heard of at least one employee receiving the software.
-
- "We just kind of wanted to spread the word,"
Gary said. "We want to head off any problems."
-
- If the response of those two government agencies is any
indication of how other departments will respond, Microsoft may back away
from the program.
-
- "Based on an overall response we receive from governments,"
Hodson said, "we may look at doing things differently the next time."
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- Copyright ©2004 CNET Networks, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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- http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-5171976.html?tag=nefd_lede
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