A public relations fiasco/nightmare/storm has hit Microsoft and its Philippine office. The worldwide computer operating software monopoly has been sued by a Philippine school for violating copyright!

The Southeastern Colleges claims that Microsoft reprinted and distributed CD copies of a copyrighted manual on the use of Microsoft Office, and the company did so without the express consent of the school.  What Microsoft obtained from the school was permission to reprint it in book form, not to make or spread CD copies.

Read Erwin Oliva’s report here.

This one is for the books, and will surely be Digg-ed endlessly for exposing Microsoft’s purported hypocrisy vis-a-vis intellectual property rights.

The moral lesson for Southeastern College: Don’t trust Microsoft 100 percent.

Lessons for Microsoft: Respect small schools, respect everyone. Do what you say on IPR.

Lessons for all of us: Try OpenOffice and Ubuntu.