Information about Office System 2003
Just so that you guys know, the following information was posted on the MS newsgroups regarding Office 2003:
Thank you for participating in our Microsoft Office Systems 2003 pre-release program! Some of you have asked about why there are confidentiality terms included in the end user license agreement that accompanies the Beta 2 kit for the Microsoft Office Systems products. Specifically, the end user license agreement contains the following provision:CONFIDENTIALITY. The Product, including its existence and features, any
software code in human-readable form, and any related information are
proprietary and confidential information to Microsoft and its suppliers.
Recipient agrees not to disclose or provide the Product, documentation, or
any related information (including the Product features or the results of
use or testing) to any third party, prior to commercial release of the
Product. However, Recipient may disclose confidential information in
accordance with judicial or other governmental order, provided Recipient
shall give Microsoft reasonable written notice prior to such disclosure and
shall comply with any applicable protective order or equivalent. Further,
Recipient shall not be liable to Microsoft for disclosure of information
which Recipient can prove (a) is already known to Recipient without an
obligation to maintain the same as confidential; (b) becomes publicly known
through no wrongful act of Recipient; (c) is rightfully received from a
third party without breach of an obligation of confidentiality owed to
Microsoft; or (d) is independently developed by Recipient. The obligations
of this Section 7 are in addition to the terms of any confidentiality or
non-disclosure agreement that may exist between Microsoft and Recipient.
We regret that this provision was included in the license due to an oversight. Microsoft has no intention of enforcing this restriction with respect to this pre-release product. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Our recommendation for any interested parties who seek to evaluate Microsoft Office Systems 2003 Beta 2, is to visit Microsoft.com/office to purchase a beta 2 kit (cost is nominal and covers shipping and handling).
-Sue Hill (MS)
Now, I don't think this means that we can just go blabbing about everything regarding the product, but I do think that it frees us from worring about getting in trouble if we talk. PLEASE NOTE: I'm posting this for the benefit of all .NET Bloggers currently testing Office 2003 in one form or another. The post was in an obscure part of the newsgroups, and I felt it was extremely important for you to know. Since the beta is public, I doubt that making this information available will be of any consequence, since the information above came from MS.