All I’m asking for is removal of the reference to “plus a package of free Sybase Software valued at over $7000“.

I’m no marketing person but something like “plus an amazing collection of FREE software from Sybase!”. It’s that simple.

But Ok, I’ll play pretend. I pretend I’m not an ISUG member, nor TeamSybase member. I wish to obtain all of the software listed in the benefits section so I can expand my skills with these products. Via eshop, here is what I see for list prices:

Appeon For PB 6.2 (Dev Ed) – $850
PocketBuilder 2.5 – $495
Workspace 2.1 – $1395
DataWindows .NET – $695
PowerBuilder Ent 11.5 – $3000
EaServer 6.2 Dev Ed – Free (currently “Hot Buy” on eshop)
SQL Anywhere (single user) – $125
25% discount on PowerDesigner Dev Ed – $750
=============================
TOTAL = $7,310 American

I didn’t include Powerdesigner Studio, or the list price for EAServer sans the “hot deal”. So, I can pay the above, or I can shell out $99 for ISUG and get more restrictive (but equally functional) versions of that software I’d otherwise have to pay $7,310 to get. I think most anyone who applies reason, and logic would “get” this. This is speaking to my first comment on this thread.

No, I don’t have an axe to grind. Personal email? No it wasn’t a personal email. If Mike sent me an email representing himself and NOT ISUG, then it would be a personal email.

So, I’ve removed the image in question and put up a red X instead. What little that can be seen of the original image is covered under fair use within the United States. Copyright law is a wonderful thing don’t you think?

In case anyone is interested in the email from Mike Harrold:

Sender: isugmike@gmail.com
Received: by 10.150.252.14 with SMTP id z14mr2213033ybh.72.1266444173022; Wed,
17 Feb 2010 14:02:53 -0800 (PST)
Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:02:52 -0500
X-Google-Sender-Auth: 2fde8f4f5d62aadb
Message-ID:
Subject: Blog Post
From: Mike Harrold .Harrold@isug.com>
To: “Jason L. Froebe”
Cc: president Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=000e0cd6f1b80f9706047fd3034b

–000e0cd6f1b80f9706047fd3034b
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Jason,

Please immediately remove the ISUG logo from your blog post at
http://froebe.net/blog/2010/02/02/be-warned-international-sybase-user-group-isugs-free-software-for-members-from-sybase-isnt-what-you-think-it-is/

You do not have permission to use the ISUG logo for this or any other
purpose.

Regards,

Mike Harrold
Executive Director
International Sybase User Group
Email: Mike.Harrold@isug.com
Join ISUG. Learn More. Earn More!
Join today at http://my.isug.com/join

Unfortunately, this is rather typical of the ISUG board of directors. Instead of correcting their statement (just remove the bit about $7,000 already!), they threaten critics. Has the ISUG leadership fallen so low?

The purpose of this post is not to direct people away from being ISUG members, you do get a nifty Technical Journal where article authors are only sometimes paid for their work, but to have people join with their collective eyes open.

ISUG’s deception of membership benefits on their website is clarified with the rather rude if technically accurate email from the ISUG president that was emailed to all members (11/12/2009 06:39 AM CT):

[Please note: this message has been sent to the entire ISUG membership.]

ISUG Members,

It has come to our attention that a certain few ISUG members are abusing the NFR software licenses that ISUG provides as part of its Green and Gold benefits packages. The license that ISUG members use is granted specifically for design and testing of software. Development of commercial or production software is strictly prohibited.

ISUG and its members enjoy a great relationship with Sybase. This relationship means that we have been able to provide unlimited, no time constraint copies of Sybase software to members through our benefit packages. We find it unfortunate that some members have chosen to abuse that relationship with ISUG and with Sybase. In this case a few members’ bad actions may affect the entire membership of Sybase users.

ISUG would like to keep offering this benefit to our members. We therefore would like to remind everyone that the license agreement with Sybase is legally binding. ISUG also has a zero tolerance policy for violations, and will take immediate action against any member who violates the terms of service.

If you have any questions about licenses, or would like to inquire about the terms of use, please contact us immediately.

Regards,

Bryan Enochs
ISUG President

A side note: The part about “ISUG also has a zero tolerance policy for violations, and will take immediate action against any member who violates the terms of service.” is particularly interesting as the only course of action ISUG could take is to report the violations to Sybase (Legal). Depending on which country the member is located in, a NFR license may in fact mean a full retail license for production use. Remember that copyright laws and the validity and/or enforcement of end user license agreements vary greatly.