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[News] [OSS] The Corporate Fight Against "Open Source"

Managing the "No Open Source" clause

,----[ Quote ]
| Such "No Open Source" clauses are remnants of the (mostly) ignorance
| of days gone by, but they still persis
| 
| [...]
| 
| Such clauses are a nuisance, but not a debilitating one. I imagine
| that they'll slowly go the way of the dodo as open source becomes
| the standard way of doing business. It will take time, but the
| legal goofiness will go away in advance of open source's triumph.
`----

http://weblog.infoworld.com/openresource/archives/2007/05/managing_the_no.html

Microsoft's state-by-state fight to maintain its Office monopoly (WSJ)

,----[ Quote ]
| With 97% market share in the office productivity suite market,
| it's understandable that Microsoft would feel threatened.
| Understandable, but not laudable. 
`----

http://weblog.infoworld.com/openresource/archives/2007/05/microsofts_stat.html

...Not the first state to suffer from this type of treatment. It gets worse.
Have a look:

>From Mass.

Second CIO:

,----[ Quote ]
| As CIO of Massachusetts from February to November last year, Louis 
| Gutierrez had to endure most of the brunt of Microsoft Corp.'s political 
| wrath over a state policy calling for the adoption of the Open Document 
| Format for Office Applications, or ODF -- a rival to the software vendor's 
| Office Open XML file format.
`----

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9012760&source=rss_news50

First CIO:

,----[ Quote ]
|    Quinn:  Almost to a person, to anybody involved or who knows about
|    the ODF issue, they attributed the story to Microsoft, right, wrong
|    or otherwise. Senator Pacheco may be a bully but I do not believe he
|    is disingenious and would stoop to such a tactic. Senator Pacheco and
|    Secretary Galvin's office remain very heavily influenced by the
|                                          
|    Microsoft money and its lobbyist machine, as witnessed by their
|    playbook and words, in my opinion.
`----

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060119232859729

At the end of the day:

MA Governor-Elect Names MS Anti-ODF Lobbyist to Technology Advisory Group

http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20061128161343183


Astroturfing in the United Kingdom (Mike Taylor called this
pseudo-grassroots):

Microsoft calls on UK public to raise the Office standard

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is calling on the Great British public to join its campaign
| to get the XML Office format adopted as an international standard.
| 
| [...]
| 
| It is not clear if the UK is an opponent. However, a representative
| of fellow member the Bureau of Indian Standards recently reportedly
| complained to the IndiaTime.com over Microsoft's decision to dump
| 6,000 pages of documentation on them.
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/04/microsoft_office_standards_petition/


Look at some facts:

Microsoft's Open XML Format Advances in ISO

,----[ Quote ]
| Andy Updegrove, a partner with Boston law firm Gesmer Updegrove and
| editor of the ConsortiumInfo.org standards blog, said that 14 of 20
| responses were clearly negative, two indicated divisions of opinion,
| three were inconclusive or neutral, and one offered no objections.
`----

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2110684,00.asp

Here is Microsoft voting for itself in the ISO.

Packing The Court At The ISO?

,----[ Quote ]
|      ...P member countries ('participating member' countries) sending 
|     representatives, and I am interested to note the majority of
|     their representatives are, as individuals, also Microsoft employees.
| 
| [...]
| 
| How can they not see that OOXML (ECMA 376) is unwanted by anyone outside of 
| Microsoft? How about it Brian Jones? Are you really so desperate that you
| have to resort to that?
`----

http://lnxwalt.wordpress.com/2007/03/23/packing-the-court-at-the-iso/

I could go on and on giving more examples. It's clear that there's a very
ditry battle out there... a battle for the cash cow. FWIW, a recent Register
survey found that 20% of El Reg's reader's use OpenOffice.

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