Over a period of several weeks, Frantz was subjected to what we now know to be a standard operating procedure on the part of Microsoft Software Asset Management "engagement managers" -- key sales players on certain account teams. These managers will contact a company out of the blue with a claim that Microsoft has reason to believe the company's software isn't properly licensed. Stressing the risks associated with noncooperation, they insist on sending a consultant to do an audit, thereby greasing the skids for a lucrative Software Asset Management contract. Very bad form, you might say.

Now that the tactic has been exposed, it's Microsoft that suddenly finds itself on the defensive. But the company had reason to question the prudence of its strategy even before my column appeared.

The week before Frantz contacted me, he had already written to his engagement manager, Janet Lawless, to call her bluff. Fed up with the increasingly threatening tone of her correspondence despite his repeated attempts to demonstrate compliance, he finally told her that he wasn't going to waste anymore time with her and that she was to direct all future correspondence on the matter to his corporate attorney. But it's the way he concluded that e-mail that presumably got Microsoft's attention.

"The thing that is really sad about this whole affair is that Auto Warehousing Company is virtually a dedicated Microsoft shop, due to my (prior) professional respect for your company," Frantz wrote. "As I have spoken at global conferences and been quoted many times in the IT trade press, I have reinforced that AWC is a Microsoft shop and that we are proud of that fact. It is extremely unfortunate that it is now clear that your many detractors are actually the ones that are correct."

Since the column appeared, tens of thousands of people all over the world have become aware of the practice. Many others who were already aware of it, including readers in Scotland, New Zealand and Singapore, wrote to share similar experiences. Waleed Hanafi, a consultant in Singapore, said he was targeted by Microsoft several years ago when he was CIO at an international bank.