p2pnet.net News:- The US Army has ordered Microsoft to stop sending freebies to personel.

The latter has apparently been mailing unsolicited copies of its "pricey" Office productivity software to the former, as well as to other government employees.

But, "least two federal agencies are warning recipients to return the gifts or risk violating federal ethics policies," says CNET here.

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," says the story, going on that the giveaway was expanded to government workers this year.

Ethics offices at the Department of the Interior and Department of Defense said the freebies constitute unauthorized gifts and have to be returned.

But the Department of the Army went further, instructing Microsoft chairman Bill Gates to stop sending the software to Army personnel.

"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 February 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," CNET points out.

"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."

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 11th, 2004 at 4:28 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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