Don't pirate MS-Office: use ours, says OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org has launched a campaign to persuade companies worried about software compliance to move to its open source productivity application.

The project has launched a Web site for the 'Get Legal -- get OpenOffice.org' campaign, and hopes to drive traffic to the site by encouraging Webmasters and bloggers to display the campaign banner on their sites.

The Web site highlights the recent drive by Microsoft and the Business Software Alliance to clamp down on unlicensed software, including Microsoft's purchase of asset-tracking company AssetMatrix and the expansion of its Genuine Advantage program, as well as the the BSA's decision to offer a £20,000 reward for anyone informing against the use of unlicensed software in UK organisations.

"If you have a copy of MS-Office at work, at school, at home -- are you sure where it came from?" asks the campaign Web site. "Fortunately, there is a completely legal and free alternative. OpenOffice.org 2 is a fully featured office suite, similar in functionality to MS-Office. OpenOffice.org 2 does everything you need: word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and much more."

The success of the campaign is likely to depend on how much support the project gets from its user community. The Mozilla Foundation achieved considerable success with its SpreadFirefox campaign, which helped drive more than 100 million downloads of the Firefox browser in its first year.