Microsoft to Charge for Beta

Pleading bandwidith issues I'm sure, Microsoft has decided to charge for downloads of the Office 2007 Beta (no I won't use the silly name with a small 's'.) Yeah, it is only a $1.50. But it reminds me of when Daniel Synder, (in my Top 5 list of the most foolish sports moguls) took over the Washington Redskins and decided to charge fans to watch summer practices. A practice that was quickly backed off to a degree after the PR furor.

Now, I'm sure there are valid issues for this. As I recall Microsoft claims the demand almost brought down the Internet when they publicly released the Beta of both Vista and Office 2007(still resisting.) But this just seems silly to me.

I wonder if we have to pass through the WGA barriers before they will aceept our $1.50.