*The Italian ministry of Work and Social Politics scrapped a 4,5 million euro tender aimed at only authorised large account Microsoft resellers.* An association of Italian Open Source software activists, the 'Associazione per il Software Libero' had filed an appeal against tender, originally filed in February 2006. The association reasoned that the tender is in violation of a 2003 law, requiring public instituted to examine all possible software choices. According to the Open Source group, the tender explicitly excluded alternatives to Microsoft. It also argued that of all authorised Microsoft resellers in Italy, only 11 would qualify. Their appeal was accepted by an Italian court this past December. The court decided to investigate the Ministry's tender. "The tender could lack independence", the court wrote in its motivation to accept the case. The ministry decided not to wait on the courts ruling. It withdrew its tender on February 19. "We won, and therefore 4.5 million Euros of public money will not be spent on proprietary software licenses", the association said in a statement. "Public institutions too often succumb to pressure of IT companies and forget to focus on the benefits to the citizens, such as free access to information and the adoption of trustworthy technologies." ... http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/6820/469 -- ________________________________________ http://users.ntua.gr/karounos/ - skype: karounos