Mark Kent wrote:
> Richard Rasker <spamtrap@xxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>> Philip wrote:
>>
>>> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>>> Greece sell-out Proposal
>>>>
>>>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>>> | Microsoft Hellas proposes a contract that will take over control of
>>>> | the sovereign European state. Greece would lose the right to speak
>>>> | about other products its government uses and gain the right to
>>>> | support the business interests of the vendor and its policy goals.
>>>> |
>>>> | [...]
>>>> |
>>>> | Nice proposal, Microsoft will help Greece to spy on its ICT
>>>> | infrastructure in order to weaken the procurement power of Greece for
>>>> | the benefit of the supplier. Win-Win, right?
>>>> `----
>>>>
>>>> http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-35281/greece-sell-out-proposal
>>
>> Not that I like being the devil's advocate, but someone here is in
>> serious need of some language education. Here's the criticized text
>> snippet:
>>
>> "WHEREAS, the Government has, and will maintain, full discretion to
>> procure software products and/or services from vendors other than
>> MIOL;"
>>
>> This means exactly the opposite from what this podmokle person thinks it
>> means -- it literally means that the Greek government can buy software
>> from other suppliers if and when they desire to do so, and that the
>> Microsoft deal isn't exclusive in any way.
>>
>
> The quote talks about losing the capability to speak about usage,
> though. This would be a typical Microsoft clause, of course, for anyone
> daft enough to sign it (like Novell!).
The term "discretion" has several meanings, largely depending on the verb
it's used in conjunction with. One meaning indeed is "secrecy", but I'm
convinced that this is not what's meant here.
"To have/keep the discretion to do something" simply means that it's
completely up to the subject of the sentence (in this case the Greek
government) to do something (in this case try out or buy software from
other vendors). So they're free to both explore alternatives to Microsoft
sofwtare, and to publish any results from such surveys and trials. To the
best of my knowledge, the latter is even mandatory for European
governments; any government actions in the civil area are beholden to
public scrutiny.
Of course, Microsoft was notorious for closing deals with all kinds of
clauses relating to secrecy and exclusivity, specifically aimed at keeping
out other vendors, but this is most definitely not the case here. And if
I'm not mistaken, Microsoft is explicitly forbidden to close deals with
conditions like this under all sorts of antitrust law and European Court
rulings.
Richard Rasker
--
http://www.linetec.nl/
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