On September 25, the KAIST Undergraduate Student Council One Step announced that Microsoft (MS) products are available for undergraduate students on the KFTP website (http://kftp.kaist.ac.kr). Previously, MS software were provided to only the faculty members and graduate students due to product license issues.

Initially, the KFTP site was set up in 2010 to provide KAIST members with various software necessary for educational and research purposes. All users were required to have access to the KAIST Portal website (http://portal.kaist.ac.kr) to attain the software installation files and the activation keys. Despite these measures, both the files and activation keys were leaked to communities outside of KAIST. Furthermore, as the MS product licenses were initially authorized for only KAIST graduate students, faculty, and staff, the MS authentication team criticized KAIST for allowing its undergraduate students to use the software on personal devices. As a result, access to KFTP was restricted, and the provision of MS products to undergraduates was terminated in November 2012.

Following the sudden announcement that MS products would no longer be available, the call for their return was made by undergraduate students. As the percentage of students living on campus is high and programs such as Windows, Excel, and Powerpoint are necessary for students’ education and research, the lack of such software was a huge inconvenience from the point of view of undergraduate students. Fortunately, One Step was able to attain enough funds to return the service of MS products to the undergraduate community.

One issue that resurfaced was the leaking of licenses and installation files to the public. As a result, the respective serial numbers were temporarily blocked and then renewed by Microsoft Korea Intellectual Property and Licensing Group. The KAIST administration stated that students should be cautious not to release the KFTP contents to outsiders as illegal software monitoring has recently been strengthened.