WebProNews

It isn't the company's massive revenue generator, the Office productivity suite, that has been leaked, but a pair of training videos for Microsoft's in-house usage created by Ricky Gervais, who developed "The Office" TV series.

Microsoft Wants To Cut The Chatter
The training videos are still available here and here on Google Video, which unlike YouTube has not taken them off the site. Microsoft has been chasing down whoever posted them online.

The videos were never intended for public distribution, but now that they have been online for a few days, Microsoft may as well have posted them with a "Come grab these!" banner on the Internet.

Few topics are left unaddressed as Gervais and Merchant spoof their way through the workday at Microsoft. Even the company's ultra-wealthy founder, Bill Gates, gets poked by the duo.

Reuters cited a Microsoft spokesperson who confirmed the videos were made for the company in 2004. The videos feature Gervais in his "David Brent" persona, and "The Office" series co-writer Stephen Merchant.

Whoever chose to share these videos should know that vengeance is coming from Microsoft:

"We are actively working to investigate how and why they have appeared now," the spokeswoman said.

She refused to say why the company opposed the airing of the clips on the video-sharing sites.
Gervais is reportedly very unhappy about the release. A CNet UK article on the now-playing-online videos claimed that part of the agreement with Microsoft included a provision that the videos not be made public.

Oops.

---

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Yahoo! My Web | Furl

Bookmark WebProNews:

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.