When porn, patents and copyright collide
,----[ Quote ]
| Efforts to overturn software patents -- a major concern in the open source
| community -- were likely to fail, Weatherall suggested. "I don't think the
| fight is over, but I don't think you're going to kill software patents," she
| said. "There's a lot of them. Every one cost in the five figures to apply
| for. The amount of investment is enormous, and that's the sort of thing you
| have to tear down to tear down software patents."
|
| Weatherall also advised concerned hackers not to become ridiculously obsessed
| with legal issues. "Don't obsess about law reform and changes in the law.
| Your best protection during law reform processes is success. if you are
| coding well then people will go out of their way to protect you."
`----
http://www.apcmag.com/7940/when_porn_patents_and_copyright_collide
Related:
Gates blackmailed Danish government
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft boss Bill Gates threatened to kill 800 Danish jobs if
| Denmark opposed the European Computer Implemented Inventions
| Directive, reports today's Danish financial daily Børsen,
| quoted by NoSoftwarePatents.com.
`----
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/articles/auto/02162005a.php
Conflict of interests of political party president in softwarepatents issue
in the EU
,----[ Quote ]
| It now appears that Lehne works as a Brussels lobbying consultant
| for multinational corporations who are the main clients of one of
| the leading lawfirms for patent litigation in Europe, which is
| also itself involved in patent lobbying and closely connected
| to lobbying organisations.
`----
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/38793/index.html
How Microsoft distorted the facts in the Vienna conclusions
,----[ Quote ]
| Lately, many signs exist showing how Microsoft's monopoly power
| extends to government and media. We can add a new example to this
| list: The "Vienna conclusions". It seems, their power even
| extends to distorting findings in official UN documents. The
| story contains all usual elements: Sponsorship, not willing
| to participate in public discussions, a conflict of interest
| of one of the members of the committee, and a Microsoft PR
| worker making a ridiculous statement. After that, of course,
| Microsoft denied most of it and ignored the rest.
`----
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/49522/index.html
IT Sstandrads Hijack Threatens European Economix Competitiveness
,----[ Quote ]
| To stop Europe being rail-roaded into an inadequate standard, the
| ODF Alliance urges national supporters who have issues to raise
| contradictions of ECMA's standard with existing standards to
| encourage their national ISO representatives to raise formal
| contradictions as quickly as possible, certainly
| before 5th February 2007.
`----
http://sourcewire.com/releases/rel_display.php?relid=29267&hilite=
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/
EU official joins consultancy serving Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| A European Commission official originally chosen to lead its antitrust
| case against Microsoft left on Friday last week to work for a
| consultancy that has the software firm as a client, a spokesman said.
`----
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
Study: open source needs official support; Lobbyist
disagrees with "flawed" conclusions
,----[ Quote ]
| The study, commissioned by the European Commission, Directorate
| General Enterprise and Industry, is but a small part of the larger
| FLOSSPOLS project that aims to keep the EU a leader in global
| development of open source software.
|
| [...]
|
| Now, the ISC is widely regarded as a shill for Microsoft, although
| the member list also includes companies like Intel, Autodesk, and
| RSA Security (now an EMC subsidiary). The 300-strong member list is
| mostly padded with lesser lights such as Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi(
| Turkey), ThreeSixtyDegreez (Pakistan), and Datoprogrammu Apgads
| (Latvia). The institute pushes hard for the right to patent
| software, alongside regular bashings of open source businesses.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061017-8011.html
Leaked letter warns of open source 'threat to eco-system'
,----[ Quote ]
| leaked letter to the European Commission has revealed the extent of
| lobbying by proprietary software groups to prevent the widespread
| adoption of open-source software.
|
| Sent in response to a recent report on the role of open-source
| software in the European economy, Microsoft-funded pressure
| group, the Initiative for Software Choice (ISC) warned of
| potentially dire effects if too much encouragement was given
| to open source software development.
`----
http://www.techworld.com/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=7109
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
Lobbying critics target Brussels and Berlin
,----[ Quote ]
| A suspected manipulation of a consultation on the future patent system of
| the European Union led to the EU Commission being nominated for
| the less-than-prestigious award -- which the Commission promptly
| went on to win in the category "Worst Privileged Access."
`----
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/82556/from/rss09
Doing the Microsoft patent dance
,----[ Quote ]
| And please, Novell and Xandros, don't whine that Microsoft pulled a
| fast one on you, and reiterate that open source is clean. No one
| needed you to tell them that. Innocent until proven guilty in
| this country. And especially in light of all the evidence that
| points against such claims.
`----
http://weblog.infoworld.com/openresource/archives/2007/06/doing_the_micro.html
A Patent Lie
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft sang a very different tune in 1991. In a memo to his
| senior executives, Bill Gates wrote, "If people had understood how
| patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented,
| and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete
| standstill today." Mr. Gates worried that "some large company will
| patent some obvious thing" and use the patent to "take as much of
| our profits as they want."
`----
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/09/opinion/09lee.html
,----[ Quote ]
| ...Thanks to Mr. Gates, we now know that an open Internet with protocols
| anyone can implement is communism...
|
| ...Mr. Gates' secret is out now--he too was a "communist;" he, too,
| recognized that software patents were harmful-until Microsoft
| became one of these giants...
`----
http://news.com.com/Bill+Gates+and+other+communists/2010-1071_3-5576230.html?part=rss&tag=5575731&subj=news.1071.20
Microsoft's American Proxy Patent War Continues
,----[ Quote ]
| PJ & Company astutely make the connection that behind "IP Innovation LLC" is
| a group called Acacia which is staffed by senior Microsoft agents, including
| Jonathan Taub, a Microsoft Hero & Key Achiever.
`----
http://fussnotes.typepad.com/plexnex/2007/10/microsofts-prox.html
Competition by Proxy
,----[ Quote ]
| Google's pending acquisition of doubleclick "will be bad for consumers"
| because it threatens competition and privacy. So said Microsoft's general
| counsel during a recent Senate subcommittee hearing ( Click here for more).
| Nice of the software giant to take up the cudgel for the little guy. But
| Microsoft has a big stake in blocking the deal--considering that it's losing
| the war to Google over billions of dollars in Internet advertising.
`----
http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2007/1029/034.html?partner=yahoomag
Opinion: behind the Acacia suit
,----[ Quote ]
| It's a neat structure. Pump money into Acacia so it can attack Red Hat, and
| at the same time prove to the world how strong the Microsoft patent shield
| really is against those naughty, naughty trolls.
|
| If this works with Acacia, perhaps we can expect a scaled-up attack by
| Intellectual Ventures on Linux users like Google and IBM.
`----
http://www.digitalmajority.org/forum/t-24106/opinion:behind-the-acacia-suit
Is Acacia link with Microsoft just smoke?
,----[ Quote ]
| Is all this smoke just coincidence? It may well be. But the smoke gets
| thicker by the day.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=1587
Playing Microsoft Patent Poker
,----[ Quote ]
| This time though, while Ballmer slinks away to try to con … convince people
| that Microsoft Unified Communications somehow offers people more than what
| Cisco's VOIP (voice over IP) been offering customers for years, a patent
| attack finally launches at Linux. Specifically, IP Innovation, a subsidiary
| of Acacia Technologies Group, has filed a patent infringement claim against
| Linux distributors Novell and Red Hat.
|
| So was it just timing, or was it something more? Let's take a look at the
| players.
`----
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2201579,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03129TX1K0000616
Sun exec accuses Microsoft of 'patent terrorism'
,----[ Quote ]
| The efforts of Microsoft to pressure the Linux community over alleged and
| unspecified patents is akin to "patent terrorism", according to a local
| executive for Sun Microsystems.
`----
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Sun-exec-accuses-Microsoft-of-patent-terrorism-/0,130061733,339280437,00.htm
Microsoft, the art of Corporate Terrorism.
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft, no longer the technological leader in the Computer Desktop
| market, is taking on a terrorist role in its attempt remain in power
| at all costs. (see the link to the CNN story below)
|
| The tactic is intended to frighten current, and would be, free
| software users away from products that Microsoft just can't compete
| with. It's not a new tactic, but for the first time desperation is
| beginning to show.
`----
http://sweetcomputing.com/index.php?wiki=Microsoft_Terrorism
Convicted Monopolist Terrorizes Software Industry
,----[ Quote ]
| That headline is designed to grab your attention. Sensationalistic as
| it may be, it also happens to be true, if what you mean by 'terrorize'
| is to provoke fear.
|
| If you've been following the presidential race in the United States,
| you know the present crop of candidates have been exploiting the fear
| of the American people as they never have before in the history of
| the country.
`----
http://www.linux.org/news/opinion/ms_threats.html
|
|
