British students encouraged to steal Vista
Microsoft’s ‘Ultimate Steal’ promotion for students has arrived in the United Kingdom. And unlike in North America, those taking part can buy a heavily discounted upgrade edition of Vista.
As with the US and Canadian version, the program offers eligible students an approximately 90% discount on Office Ultimate 2007, which includes the standard Office components (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint) and throws in extras such as the Access database program, Publisher and OneNote. The price under the program is £38.95 (approximately US$70).
However, hidden away on the promotion’s site is a list of ‘additional products’ available from 24 October. They include an upgrade edition of Vista Ultimate for just £40.95. That’s down from a list price of £204 (though you can get legit copies for £158 through Amazon).
Technically, the offer is open to any British student registered on either a further education (post-16) course with at least 15 hours teaching time a week or a university degree course. It’s also open to teaching staff.
The main validation process appears to be that you can only order the software through a special link which must be sent to an e-mail address registered to one of Britain’s education domains (most prominently .ac.uk). There’s a limit of one copy of each product per person.
Those thinking of misusing the offer should note that:
Microsoft or an appointed vendor may contact you to verify that you are a current student or member of the staff. If documentation is not provided to indicate that you are a current student or staff member, you will be liable to reimburse Microsoft for the difference between what you paid and the estimated retail price of the software.
Whether the firm would actually bother going to this trouble is open to question – though of course we at Blorge do not endorse putting it to the test.
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