Microsoft Friday said that this week it will begin charging US$1.50 for users to download a copy of the Office 2007 beta 2.
“In just the past two months since its launch, more than 3 million people have downloaded the 2007 Microsoft Office system beta 2,” the company said in a statement sent via e-mail. “Given how dramatically the beta 2 downloads have exceeded our goals, we have made the business decision to implement a cost-recovery measure for downloading the beta.”
Microsoft will begin charging users starting Wednesday, it said. The company released beta 2 of Office 2007 in May.
Though users will be charged for downloads of the actual Office 2007 beta 2 software, Microsoft will continue to offer an online test drive of Office 2007 it launched in late June that users can access through a Web browser.
pff $1.50 is fair. I can’t imagine what the bandwidth costs for 3000000 people to download the beta.
this move by microsoft will reinforce the piracy world. i have never had much faith in the inteligence of the company but now i have none.
pffffffffffffft. not that i am too surprised. lol
pay for a beta? I don’t think so. I won’t even pay for a final!