Microsoft's bold march towards open source
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is labouring under a delusion. While the rest of the world
| thinks of it as a software company, it prefers to consider itself
| a government department. How else to see its latest scheme whereby,
| if you ignore its questions, it will report you to its private
| paid-for policemen at the Business Software Alliance?
`----
http://opinion.zdnet.co.uk/leader/0,1000002208,39285719,00.htm
Many of the links below illustrate how Microsoft manipulates local and
foreign authorities.
Related:
Microsoft cracks down on UK licences
,----[ Quote ]
| According to ComputerWorld, Vole has sent out a series of letters
| threatening legal action using its agents the Business
| Software Alliance (BSA).
|
| Ram Dhaliwal, Microsoft's licensing programs manager in the
| UK said the move was to "spark off the engagement" with its customers.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37281
Microsoft plays Massachusetts Senate card
OpenDocument not a done deal yet
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32515
EU official joins consultancy serving Microsoft
http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2006-10-03T134311Z_01_L03693228_RTRIDST_0_TECH-MICROSOFT-OFFICIAL.XML&rpc=66&type=qcna
http://tinyurl.com/h47g3
US ambassador to the EU was former Microsoft lobbyist
,----[ Quote ]
| Before C. Boyden Gray was named as George Bush's number one person in
| Europe, he was a lawyer lobbying on behalf of Microsoft.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34706
US politicians go to bat for Microsoft
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/26/microsoft_eu_political_lobbying/
Changing the Report, After the Vote
,----[ Quote ]
| That agreement was nearly imperiled last weekend, though. Gerri
| Elliott, corporate vice president at Microsoft's Worldwide Public
| Sector division, sent an e-mail message to fellow commissioners
| Friday evening saying that she "vigorously" objected to a paragraph
| in which the panel embraced and encouraged the development of open
| source software and open content projects in higher education.
`----
http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/01/commission
Politics and tech companies: follow the money
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft took first place with $651,100 given out, while
| Hewlett-Packard gave only $185,550, and Gateway gave a paltry
| $2,000. Microsoft's donations certainly illustrate well the true
| size of the company and the extent of its political concerns.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061110-8194.html
Years of deadlock on EU patent bring some new thinking
,----[ Quote ]
| When Bill Gates visits Brussels on Thursday to speak with
| government officials, software developers and customers, he
| plans to wade into one of Europe's longest-running, most
| fruitless debates: the pursuit of a unified patent system.
| Gates, chairman of Microsoft, wants a simple system that will
| allow the world's largest software maker and other companies
| to protect their intellectual property in the European Union -
| and profit from licensing their patents.
`----
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/08/business/patents.php
,----[ Quote ]
| "A source that deals with the company said unofficially that Gates
| proposed Microsoft's Digital Rights Management technology as a national
| standard to fight piracy at the governmental level."
`----
http://www.kommersant.com/p719683/r_528/
|
|
