utterly revealing
|
| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| tuxchick2 May 16, 2006 2:26 PM EDT |
So it's as we all suspected- this was not a lone, over-aggressive salesbully, but someone implementing company policy. Truly amazing how far removed m$ is from any shred of honesty or decency. |
| dcparris May 16, 2006 4:04 PM EDT |
Hear! Hear! Nothing like a license troll to make your day. |
| moopst May 16, 2006 11:06 PM EDT |
I gotta believe it's more than a sales tactic. It's about letting some MicroSpy poke around your datacenter and inventory all your software, M$ or otherwise. |
| grouch May 16, 2006 11:26 PM EDT |
What a business plan! 1. Buy brick. 2. Make brick incompatible with other bricks. 3. License brick (not sell) to largest brick home builder. 4. Use backroom deals, misinformation and adjustable incompatibilities to squeeze out all other brick makers. 5. Make bricks crumble. 6. License brick anti-crumble coatings. 7. Make brick licenses too complex for comprehension. 8. Organize brick license cops. 9. Make big news fining brick license violators. 10. Make brick license calculator. 11. Threaten brick licensors with brick license cops. 12. Sell consulting service, which uses own brick license calculator, to "help" brick licensors avoid brick license cops. Now, someone please explain to me how that's a better deal for the customer. |
| dinotrac May 17, 2006 3:55 AM EDT |
grouch: I try over and over and over and over again, buy you seem incapable of bringing those unlicensed gray matter cells into compliance. The answer is simple: By engaging brick management consultants, the customer own customers can avoid living in a house constructed of increasingly decrepit and vulnerable bricks. At the appropriate time, a lovely little tent will be erected in the back yard (for an appropriate fee which includes rental for back yard space leased back to the brick manufacturer as part of the original brick purchase). The house's brickwork (to the extent it still stands and has not been compromised) will be removed and replaced with shiny new Vista bricks. The new Vista bricks, unfortunately, are heavier than the old bricks, so a new foundation and other infrastructure will be supplied. Good news, though -- the re-do will cost less than twice the original purchase price. Homeowners will be delighted to pay, if only to escape the Rottweilers protecting them in that tent in the back yard. |
| number6x May 17, 2006 5:02 AM EDT |
I would say let MS send someone. Then If the Microsoft sales rep declines, the videotape will be evidence you were willing to cooperate with Microsoft's audit, but they chose to refuse. That way if they send the BSA thugs you can countersue. Your lawyers will get rich, and you will win! |
| dinotrac May 17, 2006 5:50 AM EDT |
6x - Actually, I would take a very different approach, but only if satisfied that I am completely legal, which I am. My response? My business is none of your business. If you have reason to believe that I am out of compliance, share that information with me and, if there is indeed a problem, I will fix it. Otherwise, go away. If you wish to threaten me again, you had better go to court. |
| dcparris May 17, 2006 2:27 PM EDT |
Oh, I just *wish* they would call me to send an auditor - er, um, I mean sales rep. That would be genuinely hilarious. In fact, I would readily admit that I don't have *any* properly licensed Microsoft software. I just want to see the looks on their faces when they discover I'm running a pure GNU/Linux network. :-D |
| grouch May 17, 2006 2:33 PM EDT |
My head is still reeling from dino's back yard lease-back tent rental Rottweiler consultant upgrade. [edit:] What was it again that you're selling? |
| dcparris May 17, 2006 2:45 PM EDT |
Dino:
>My business is none of your business. If you have reason to believe that I am out of compliance, share that information with me and, if there is indeed a problem, I will fix it. Otherwise, go away. Yeah. That's what Ernie Ball's son said, too. |
| dinotrac May 17, 2006 3:21 PM EDT |
Rev - >Yeah. That's what Ernie Ball's son said, too. Didn't Ernie Ball lack the proper evidence for compliance --- proper evidence in this case being the ridiculous standard Microsoft set out in its large customer license? I seem to remember they caught more than a few companies napping. At least Ball took the "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." approach. |
| dcparris May 17, 2006 3:47 PM EDT |
You may be right on that point, Dino. I just remember they were running out of money to fight the borg. |
| grouch May 17, 2006 4:41 PM EDT |
dcparris: The problem was that MS got things rigged so that anyone contesting the BSA has to pay BSA's court costs up front. If you don't have half a million or so laying around, you can't pay the *admission price* to that carnival. From http://news.com.com/2008-1082_3-5065859.html "Rockin' on without Microsoft": >"Did you want to settle? Never, never. That's the difference between the way an employee and an owner thinks. They attacked my family's name and came into my community and made us look bad. There was never an instance of me wanting to give in. I would have loved to have fought it. But when (the BSA) went to Congress to get their powers, part of what they got is that I automatically have to pay their legal fees from day one. That's why nobody's ever challenged them--they can't afford it. My attorney said it was going to cost our side a quarter million dollars to fight them, and since you're paying their side, too, figure at least half a million. It's not worth it. You pay the fine and get on with your business. What most people do is get terrified and pay their license and continue to pay their licenses. And they do that no matter what the license program turns into." |
| dcparris May 17, 2006 4:48 PM EDT |
Grouch: Thanks for the total recall. :-) |
| grouch May 17, 2006 5:06 PM EDT |
dcparris: Things keep getting shuffled around on the web, but if you can remember a unique phrase or two, those old news stories can be dredged out of the closet. Lots of places show the skeletons hidden in Microsoft's closet, but there are so many people who have never heard of them. Here's a page of such things that I managed to resurrect by getting the author's permission: http://edge-op.org/cloweth/ |
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