Linux Online - Microsoft colludes with public universities to subvert state public records laws

Microsoft colludes with public universities to subvert state public records laws


		Date:	Dec 25 2002

In the last few years, Microsoft has been aggressively signing up colleges to it's Custom Enterprise and Education Select licensing programs. For a yearly fee, an educational institution receives the right to sell Microsoft software at a nominal fee to it's students and employees. However, as part the of the license agreement, Microsoft has been stipulating that the terms of the contract be kept under non-disclosure. Public institutions covered by public records laws are clearly unable to abide by such terms. There are very few exemptions to the disclosure requirements of these laws. Indeed, non-competitive contracts with convicted monopolists would seem to be expressly what these laws should allow to be exposed. Surprisingly, a number of public universities have been signing off on these non-disclosure terms in apparent breach of their state's public records laws.