Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> ____/ Mark Kent on Saturday 22 September 2007 08:44 : \____
>
>> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>>> ____/ dapunka on Monday 17 September 2007 21:47 : \____
>>>
>>>> On 17 Sep, 15:27, Ramon F Herrera <ra...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>> EU court dismisses Microsoft appeal
>>>>>
>>>>> http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/17/news/international/microsoft_ruling/i...
>>>>>
>>>>> This is the New Europe -Land of Linus- as opposed to the Old USA.
>>>>>
>>>>> -Ramon
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> When I read about this earlier today, I was truly shocked. I was so
>>>> sure that Microsoft would have cunningly pirouetted away from under
>>>> the judge's gavel - maybe allegedly aided by a financial inducement
>>>> somewhere and a fan club of politicians somewhere else. But no -
>>>> almost all of the 2004 decision was upheld. Including that
>>>> accumulating fine! That's got to get 'em where it hurts!
>>>
>>> It'll be more important (and interesting) to see the reaction of the States
>>> who wish to extend oversight at this very crucial time (Microsoft's
>>> attempted hijack of the Web, including replacement of (X)HTML with XAML,
>>> which is
>>> Windows-only). Let's not forget OOXML, HD, and XPS. Why doesn't media cover
>>> these hugely important issues?
>>>
>>
>> Well, for the following reasons:
>>
>> 1. They don't understand them
>> 2. The public doesn't understand them
>> 3. Microsoft own a large part of the media
>> 4. The US government is thoroughly influenced by Microsoft
>> 5. Microsoft has invested huge sums in influence governments around the
>> world
>> 6. The media rely on Microsoft for much revenue
>> ...
>
> The Web can help change some of this (blog especially), but it still has a very
> limited reach. Some people only use the Web for E-mail (Webmail of course),
> Facebook, and random surfing (on football and celebrities).
>
> Still, the least we can do is speak out and hope something sticks.
>
Actually, I think we're beginning to win. Oddly, the atmosphere on
addressing this corruption is about the same as the atmosphere in cola
was about 5-10 years ago (I'd check the exact date, but google groups
seems to be completely broken now).
In any case, my point is that there was always an inevitability about the
success of free software, because the GPL offers a completely compelling
proposition. In much the same way, there is an inevitability about the
long-term success of open reporting, since the internet's business model
and flexibility is such that it will be impossible to shut it down.
Politicians will frequently call for censorship "to protect the
children" (and their own arses, strangely), but the machine is too large
and complicated to influence readily with a few sound-bites.
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
| My (new) blog: http://www.thereisnomagic.org |
|
|
