SIF has been taken from SIIA control. It is its own entity now. > You may also be interested to know that we recently extracted SIF from > SIIA and no longer have any association with SIIA. SIF is now a > non-profit association dedicated to developing K-12 software > interoperability standards. On Mon, 2003-10-13 at 11:16, Tom Adelstein wrote: > After a careful analysis of the SIIA SIF standard, I want to recommend > that Schoolforge avoid this standard 100% and look at other initiatives > in progress such as ADL Co-Lab Network, SCORM (Sharable Content Object > Reference Model), among aothers. > > I'd like to reference an article call "The Standard Bearers Close Ranks". > > http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7359 > > The article addresses each initiative as well as SIF. > > SIIA is an organization closely resembling Microsoft's front > organization BSA which has gone after schools for not having licenses or > proof of purchase.They show up with Federal Marshall's and embarass the > school district in an attempt to discredit and intimidate the boards > into submission to their claims. They only want your money. They are not > a benevolent orgainzation. > > I have person experience with SIIA. Two former disgruntled employees > (fired) told SIIA that my company was pirating software for > distribution. In fact, we were a Linux shop and developed Linux > software. We didn't have any of their software. > > It took two years to get the SIIA to give up. They billed me > extraordinary amounts for things I never had or owned. They sent us > registered letters, gave us deadlines for compliance, hired law firms to > send us drafts of law suits they planned to file. I check with other > firms and the consensus is that SIIA are bullies. I spoke to their > chairman during a conference call and he wanted me to run their audit > software on our Linux boxes and to submit a diagram of our network. > > Are you up from that kind of threatment? BTW, they interferred with our > productivity by continously calling, writing our attorney with demands > for discovery. > > This is what you may face. > > Funding for Open Source projects for K12 schools will be forthcoming in > the next few months. No need exists for schoolforge members to follow SIF. > > I plan to bring up opposition to the SIIA standard by petitioning > Congress under the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001". > > Hopefully, you will respond to this email and suggest alternatives > before I do. > > If it was up to me, I would have Congress outlaw the SIIA and BSA. But, > they will ultimately die - unless of course, they get into the > "standards business". > > Respectfully submitted, > > Tom Adelstein > Open Source Software Institute > > > >
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part