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Get Legal - Get OpenOffice.org
Press release - for release Midnight GMT May 2 2006. One week after "World Intellectual Property Day", the OpenOffice.org Marketing Project announces a new campaign: "Get legal - Get OpenOffice.org". A new website - http://why.openoffice.org - explains how to escape from Microsoft Office licence costs and compliance worries - for good. Webmasters and bloggers worldwide are encouraged to display the campaign banner to help promote the campaign. 2006 has seen proprietary software companies and their agencies increase their efforts to stamp out illegal copies of their software. Last week, the Business Software Alliance used "World Intellectual Property Day" to announce a record reward for anyone informing against illegal software in UK organisations. Microsoft acquired a company specialising in detecting software installed on PCs. Microsoft also announced its intention to extend its use of the internet to put piracy detection software into copies of MS-Office on people's PCs. For many users, this is a worrying development. Microsoft licences are often complex, and it is easy to become non-compliant, especially as the number of PCs in an organisation increases. Illegal copying has proliferated in many developing countries, where foreign currency is scarce and proprietary licence fees are simply unaffordable. OpenOffice.org 2 offers a simple way out of the licence trap. OpenOffice.org 2 is a free alternative to Microsoft Office products such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Powerpoint. OpenOffice.org 2 is released under an open-source licence: anyone may use the software for any purpose (including commercial). Users are encouraged to pass on copies to friends, family, students, employees, citizens - anyone. OpenOffice.org 2 uses files created by Microsoft Office equivalents. Users need little or no retraining. Studies have shown that the costs of migrating to OpenOffice.org 2 are minimal - a tenth of the cost of migrating to the new Microsoft Office 2007. No wonder a poll has shown 86% of users would prefer to try OpenOffice.org 2 rather than buy Microsoft Office 2007. Get freedom from licence worries - Get Legal - Get OpenOffice.org. About the OpenOffice.org Community The OpenOffice.org Community is an international team of volunteer and sponsored contributors who develop, support, and promote the leading open-source office productivity suite, OpenOffice.org 2. OpenOffice.org 2 is released under the GNU Lesser General Public Licence (LGPL). The OpenOffice.org Community acknowledges generous sponsorship from a number of companies, including Sun Microsystems (founding sponsor and primary contributor), Novell, Red Hat, Intel, and Google. Links The campaign website http://why.openoffice.org contains links to the studies referenced in this press release. The OpenOffice.org Community can be found at http://www.openoffice.org. OpenOffice.org 2 may be downloaded free of charge from http://download.openoffice.org. Further information about the suite may be found at http://www.openoffice.org/product (Log in to post comments)
maybe target schools with this Posted May 3, 2006 14:40 UTC (Wed) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] I remember giving a free software presentation to an inter-schools IT committee. While explaining the benefits, the thing they stopped me on was when I said they could install one CD everywhere they want.
"Wait, so we can put it on all the computers and be legal?" "Yes."
Word! :) Posted May 3, 2006 15:45 UTC (Wed) by bdw (guest, #16047) [Link] And I don't mean the Microsoft product either. :)
A damn good marketing strategy it is too. :)
maybe target schools with this Posted May 3, 2006 20:52 UTC (Wed) by grouch (guest, #27289) [Link] That seems to be a tough idea to get across to a lot of them. I've run into that same incredulity. Typically, somebody asks, "What's the catch?"I always fumble for an answer to that one. "Um, you can't sue them if it messes up. Of course, you're not likely to get anywhere if you sue MS, either." The questioner usually looks like he's sure there has to be a catch, still.
maybe target schools with this Posted May 3, 2006 21:18 UTC (Wed) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link] That 'sue somebody' is a laugh. In fact it kinda pisses me off that some people are stupid enough to think that actually matters.
How many people have successfully sued Microsoft for Windows 2000 chewing up their data? Or how about IBM for time lost when somebody found a bug with a installer image for a mainframe?
I mean in order to install the stupid software you have to agree to promise not to sue them. There is some clause in the EULA most of the time.
maybe target schools with this Posted May 3, 2006 22:01 UTC (Wed) by dark (subscriber, #8483) [Link] There's no need to make up a catch if there isn't one :) Some things are just better than other things.
Where's the catch?! Posted May 4, 2006 0:20 UTC (Thu) by vonbrand (subscriber, #4458) [Link] Yes, this is something I've heard a lot when I talk about open source. People assume that you will get it for free today, and later on (once you are hooked) get charged through the nose. Has anybody put together a convincing set of reasons that help convince disbelievers? Yes, telling about companies like IBM does help some, but it isn't enough.
Where's the catch?! Posted May 4, 2006 14:05 UTC (Thu) by justme (guest, #19967) [Link] The closest I can get is explaining that free software licenses were made so that users could share what they'd built with each other. That way, it makes sense that no one would suddenly add restrictions to their code.
Where's the catch?! Posted May 4, 2006 16:01 UTC (Thu) by kingdon (subscriber, #4526) [Link] Why you aren't at the mercy of the author is a subtle point, and brings to the fore the difference between zero-cost software like Skype, Bitkeeper (back when it was zero cost for some uses), Google toolbar, etc on the one hand, and open source software on the other.
So I suppose I'd praise the questioner for their insightful question, talk about the difference between zero-cost and libre (or whatever terms you want to use), and not be too surprised if it takes a while (perhaps years) to sink in (both what you are saying, and why it matters). Not that I do enough advocacy to speak from experience on this.
maybe target schools with this Posted May 4, 2006 4:59 UTC (Thu) by flewellyn (subscriber, #5047) [Link] Rather a sad statement about our culture. Everyone is so primed to think that we can't trustanything, or get anything without paying, that when someone genuinely does give them something, they get suspicious.
Get Legal - Get OpenOffice.org Posted May 3, 2006 16:41 UTC (Wed) by dmarti (subscriber, #11625) [Link] Good example of license confusion: "It has come to our attention that many organizations that are sending out bids believe that because they have enrolled in a Microsoft volume license program (i.e. Select Agreement or Enterprise Agreement), that operating systems for newly-acquired PCs are automatically enrolled in the volume program as well."
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