________________________________________________________________________________ Wired News Hey MS: What'd EDU Wrong? by James Glave 3:30 p.m. 21.Sep.99.PDT If Microsoft is such a self-proclaimed champion of education, then Andy Mingo wants to know why the software giant made him tone down a Web site he's getting college credit for operating. Actually, Mingo already knows why. It's because his site bitterly spoofs and satirizes –- if not downright condemns -– Microsoft's partnerships with colleges and universities. Oh, and one other thing: Mingo's domain is microsoftedu.com. The company had asked Mingo to change the domain name and remove images of Bill Gates and the company's logos by early last month. Mingo did alter the site, but he kept the domain -- and that was enough to satisfy Microsoft. Never mind the fact that Mingo issued a press release on Tuesday, insisting that Microsoft's partnerships with the California State University system "put profit over truth." "They are giving the impression that they believe in education, but when it comes down to it, they will only support education that would feed back into their bottom line," Mingo said. Interestingly, Microsoft's cease and desist letter advised Mingo to seek counsel from an attorney competent in domain law, trademark law, right of publicity and copyright law, and the general law of parody and the First Amendment. Mingo's site still features images of Gates as Adolph Hitler, and in a series of stories and essays, lambastes Microsoft for what Mingo said is a creeping corporate sponsorship of education. Then what did Mingo change? He won't say, other than that he removed links to pages on Microsoft's Web site. A Microsoft official agreed that the company's main problem with the site was that it looked too much like the official Microsoft sites. "Microsoft has no problem with legitimate Web sites that parody us," said spokesman Tom Pilla. "They are protected by the First Amendment and we support that. "Sometimes, some sites do cross the line between parody and content that is very confusing to users. [This site] included actual links to Microsoft sites and used our trademarks in a way that suggested there was an official position that was the opposite of our position." The 28-year-old Mingo, a graduate teaching associate at San Diego State University, put together Microsoftedu.com this summer for course credit. The site will earn him three units applied to his masters of fine arts degree in creative writing. It includes stories set in a Microsoft-dominated future, as well as art based on the company's terms of service agreement. Media hacking group ark is supporting Mingo with legal advice and publicity. "In the case of Andy's site, it is pretty clear that it is satire and we feel that this blanket approach that a lot of large corporation have, this knee-jerk response to send out a blanket letter, cuts down on the free speech rights of a lot of people out there," said ark spokesman Frank Guerrero. "Most of the time, these [sites] end up going down, out of sight and out of mind, and that is how these intimidation practices are perpetuated," Guerrero said. Mingo's satire does have a point, according to one academic who tracks corporate involvement in computer curricula. In the recent essay Killing Off Linux: It's All Academic, University of Virginia professor Bryan Pfaffenberger said that schools are not getting the funding they need from the states for software, and companies such as Microsoft are happily stepping into the breech. Pfaffenberger said that Indiana University recently announced a US$6 million deal that will allow the school to freely distribute Windows software to all students and faculty. "California State University chancellor Charles Reed keeps saying, if you're nervous about vendor funding for campus computing infrastructures, there's only one remedy: 'Get used to it,'" Pfaffenberger wrote. Pfaffenberger was careful to distance himself from any conspiracy allegations, but said that Microsoft is pressuring colleges and universities to move to Windows NT as the server platform. "There is a very strong argument for technical diversity in our educational institutions," he said. Meanwhile, Mingo -- who said lack of choice forced him to build his site with Microsoft software -- intends to keep his microsoftedu.com alive as long as he can. "It will live on and I will be around for a couple more semesters," he said. http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/21864.html ________________________________________________________________________________ no copyright 1999 rolux.org - no commercial use without permission. is a moderated mailing list for the advancement of minor criticism. more information: mail to: majordomo@rolux.org, subject line: , message body: info. further questions: mail to: rolux-owner@rolux.org. archive: http://www.rolux.org