Michael Feldstein posted an entry yesterday called Blackboard Advertises an 'Open Source LMS.' He's got a couple screen shots (like the one below) that capture the ad. The ad doesn't surprise me at all. They've been lying to their customers and to the market about open source since they first identified it as a serious threat to their monopoly. What's really suprising to me is that they are able to trick their customers into helping them spread the FUD. There are several video testimonials on their site that they've labeled as open source and they have customers talking about the risks of freeware and shareware (which are unrelated to open source). In other places they try to appear aligned with open source.

Indeed, it's not surprising at all that they lie and deceive to protect their monopoly. What's surprising is that they get away with it.