WikiLeaks Under Fire
,----[ Quote ]
| The transparency group WikiLeaks.org currently seems to be under heavy fire.
| The main WikiLeaks.org DNS entry is unavailable, reportedly due to a
| restraining order relating to a series of articles and documents released by
| WikiLeaks about off-shore trust structures in the Cayman Islands. The
| WikiLeaks whistle blower, allegedly former vice president of the Cayman
| Islands branch of swiss bank Julius Baer, states in the WikiLeaks documents
| that the bank supported tax evasion and money laundering by its clients from
| around the world
`----
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/18/043211&from=rss
Microsoft also sees a share of Web sites out there which are documenting its
corruptions, e.g. for OOXML. No attacks yet on the sites, but they attack the
individuals using anonymous blogs (e.g. robweird [sic] at blogspot and other
paid shills that post anonymously to attack ODF, as well as edit Wikipedia).
Microsoft is a very criminal organisation and that's just a factual statement.
Appended are some bits of interest.
Related:
Microsoft dirty tricks, part two (Bob Cringely)
,----[ Quote ]
| "So the outside vendor was Hewlett-Packard, one of Microsoft's
| hardware OEMs, which is to say Microsoft's bitch.
|
| The tape disappearance was blamed on HP, which accepted the blame,
| and the employees directly involved kept expecting there to be
| repurcussions, especially legal ones. They expected to be deposed by
| Burst lawyers. But it never happened.
|
| This was, for Microsoft, a perfect ending. ..."
`----
http://www.technologyevangelist.com/2007/02/microsoft_dirty_tric_4.html
Microsoft admits Swedish employee promised incentives for Open XML support
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corp. admitted Wednesday that an employee at its Swedish subsidiary
| offered monetary compensation to partners for voting in favor of the Office
| Open XML document format's approval as an ISO standard.
`----
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9033701
Stuffing it Up - ODF and OOXML Document Format Battle III
,----[ Quote ]
| THE GREAT STUFFING
|
| The stuffing of national boards with Certified Partners, getting more
| countries to join the ISO as voting members – a full throttled attack.
`----
http://fanaticattack.com/2007/stuffing-it-up-odf-and-ooxml-document-format-battle-iii.html
Microsoft accused of stacking ISO committee
,----[ Quote
| In a memo sent following his last meeting as head of the working group on
| WG1, which is handling Microsoft’s application to make the Word format an ISO
| standard as ECMA 376, outgoing Governor Martin Bryan (above), an expert on
| SGML and XML, accused the company of stacking his group.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=1777
Microsoft accused of more OOXML standards fiddling
,----[ Quote ]
| However the 11 new countries are refusing to say how they will vote. These
| include Cote d'Ivoire, Cyprus, Ecuador, Jamaica, Lebanon, Malta, Pakistan,
| Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Uruguay and Venezuela. Most people seem to think
| that these have been put there by Vole to make sure the standard gets pushed
| through.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=42106
Microsoft Looks for the Big Guns in OOXML In-Fighting
,----[ Quote ]
| Bill Gates has reportedly been making phone calls to the Secretary of Defense
| and the Secretary of Commerce to push the American National Standards
| Institute to ignore the votes of its advisory committees and vote "yes" on
| ISO standardizing Microsoft's Open Office XML (OOXML) format, the one in
| competition with the OpenDocument Format (ODF) pushed by IBM and Sun.
|
| Gates reportedly picked up the phone when the last INCITS ballot failed by
| one vote to support Microsoft.
`----
http://xml.sys-con.com/read/419573_p.htm
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/
,----[ Quote ]
| "Sadly, many of these brilliant people have been blinded by the stock
| price and unable to see that Microsoft is also the key architect of
| the greatest financial pyramid scheme this century.
|
| It is not uncommon for participants in pyramid schemes to lose their
| emotional bearings. My close friends who work at Microsoft are
| particularly upset over my work and it is possible that even Bill
| Gates and Steve Ballmer do not realize the implications of their
| financial practices."
`----
http://www.billparish.com/msftfraudfacts.html
,----[ Quote ]
| "As with all pyramid schemes, it is important to get as close to tier
| 1 as possible. From a practical standpoint, usually only tiers 1 and 2
| will derive significant long-term economic rewards from such schemes."
|
| "Microsoft has clearly entered a phase of self destructive behavior
| that began with the "tissue paper campaign" in 1995. This report will
| document this campaign for the first time."
`----
http://reactor-core.org/microsoft-pyramid.html
Insider Trading Hasn't Affect Microsoft Stock - Yet
,----[ Quote ]
| MarketWatch.com reports that Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's
| Entertainment and Devices division, sold $6.2 million of Microsoft
| stock just prior to announcing that Microsoft was going to have to
| extend XBox 360 warranties to three years because of extensive
| failures. The filings note that this was not part of any
| scheduled diversification or selling program; this was a
| conscious, unscheduled sale by the guy in charge of releasing
| news that could affect the value of Microsoft stock.
|
| [...]
|
| Insider trading is a very serious violation of the law; just
| ask Martha Stewart, who served five months in prison for
| avoiding losses of $43,000 through trades that just had suspicious
| timing (no insider trading was actually proven). This is $6.3
| million that went straight into Robbie Bach's pocket.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/seekingalpha/070713/40947_id.html?.v=1
Microsoft exec dumped stock prior to Red Ring announcement
,----[ Quote ]
| To make matters more murky, the sales were not registered with the Securities
| and Exchange Commission within the mandatory two days of the transaction, a
| result of an alleged "administrative error." Microsoft has since remedied the
| issue by following the "procedures required of late-filers."
`----
http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2007/08/14/microsoft-exec-dumped-stocks-prior-to-red-ring-addresment
Microsoft's Bach sold more stock before Xbox news
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corp. executive Robbie Bach sold $3 million more in company stock
| during the period leading up to an announcement about a costly flaw in its
| Xbox video game console than previously reported, according to a filing
| Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
`----
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/microsofts-bach-sold-additional-stock/story.aspx?guid=%7BBECA3A50-EF33-4161-A111-A43BDC8B0462%7D&siteid=yhoof
Microsoft's Predatory Response to GNU/Linux
,----[ Quote ]
| 142. GNU/Linux is an "open source" operating system that runs on Intel-
| compatible PCs. Microsoft has targeted the competing operating system
| by pressuring Intel, as well as various major OEMs such as Dell and
| Compaq, to boycott Linux. In late 2000, for instance, Microsoft
| executive Joachim Kempin described his plan of retaliation and
| coercion to shut down competition from Linux: "I am thinking of
| hitting the OEM harder than in the past with anti- Linux actions" and
| will "further try to restrict source code deliveries where possible
| and be less gracious when interpreting agreements - again without
| being obvious about it," continuing "this will be a delicate dance."
|
| 143. LindowsOS (now known as Linspire), which is developed and
| marketed by Lindows.com, Inc., is an Intel-compatible PC operating
| system based on Linux and which competes directly with Microsoft on
| the. PC desktop. On information and belief, Microsoft interfered with
| Lindows.com, Inc.'s ability to distribute its product through the OEM
| channel. Microsoft also initiated a lawsuit against Lindows.com, Inc.
| that adversely affected Lindows.com, Inc.'s ability to exist, obtain;
| funding and conduct business. Mierosoft's Antieompetltive Agreements
| With OEMs To Foreclose Competition 144. Microsoft Chairman and former
| CEO, Bill Gates, reportedly summarized the effects of the DOJ's 1995
| consent decree--which banned "per processor" licenses, among other
|
| 47Page 48 exclusionary licensing termsmas "nothing." Microsoft was
| able to devise other restrictive OEM agreements to foreclose
| competition in th¢Õ 145. A "per system" license was the practical
| equivalent of the "per processor" license. Under the "per system"
| license, the OEM had to pay royalties to Microsoft for every computer
| of a particular "model" or "system" that it shipped--again, as with
| the "per processor" contracts, regardless of whether the PC contained
| Microsoft's operating system. Microsoft defined "system" and "model"
| so broadly in its contracts that virtually all of an OEM's production
| was subject to Microsoft's "double tax" if the OEM wanted to give the
| consumer a choice of operating systems. Microsoft did not agree to
| give up its "per system" licenses in the 1995 consent decree, even
| though the Department of Justice warned the federal district court
| that "per system licenses, if not properly fencet in, could be used by
| Microsoft to accomplish anticompetitive ends similar to 'per
| processor' licenses"--and in fact were. 146. Another way that
| Microsoft found to circumvent the federal court's 1995 injunction
| forbidding its use of "minimum commitment/per processor" licenses was
| what Microsoft calls its "Market Development Agreements" ("MDAs").
| Microsoft contrived the MDA as a device to evade the Court's decree
| prohibiting Microsoft from requiring OEMs to adhere to "minimum
| commitments." As Steve Ballmer (Microsoft's current CEO) acknowledged:
| "We have always given better prices to customers who work with us to
| make the market. Those used to take the form of commits [i.e., minimum
| commitments] which we do not do anymore as a result of the [federal
| court's] decree but we still believe in rewarding people who help us
| create demand. Hence the iMDA." Under the MDAs, Microsoft granted
| large discriminatory price concessions to those OEMs that would agree
| to market and promote Microsofl's Windows to the exclusion of any
| rival operating system. These discounts were
|
| 48Page 49 calibrated so as to force the OEM to sell most of its
| computers with a Microsoft operating system in order to obtain the
| lowest price. 147. Because the OEM market is so competitive and profit
| margins are so thin, every OEM had to get the lowest price it
| could :from Microsoft in order to survive. In March 2002, a Gateway
| marketing executive (Anthony Fama) testified before Judge Kollar-
| Kotelly in State of New York et al. v. Microsoft, Case No. 98-1233
| (CKK), about how Microsoft used its MDA program in order to force OEMs
| to market Microsot's operating system exclusively: "Given the
| substantial nature of these discounts, participation in the MDA, as a
| practical matter, is not optional. In other words, not
| receiving :these discounts would put Gateway at a substantial
| competitive disadvantage, and Gateway has communicated that self-
| evident proposition to Microsoft." Microsoft also used its MDAs to
| lock OEMs in and competitors out by offering a discriminatory price to
| the OEM in a later year provided (a) the OEM reached Microsoft's
| imposed goal of Windows sales over competitive sales in the prior year
| and (b) renewed its exclusionary contract with Microsoft for ,the
| later year. This placed the OEM on a perpetual treadmill, eliminating
| competition indefinitely. Microsoft continued these exclusionary terms
| at least past April 2002. 148. One method for encouraging competition
| in the operating systems market would have been the sale by OEMs of
| "naked machines" (i.e., computers that are sold without a
| predetermined suite of software forced upon the consumer). "Naked
| machines" would allow consumers to choose their computer's software
| configuration from an array of competitive software products, either
| for preinstallation by the OEM or installation by the end user.
| Microsoft sought and obtained the agreement of the OEMs to refrain
| from selling "naked machines." Instead, OEMs universally agree to
| "bundle" Microsoft applications and operating 49Page 50
|
| systems with their computer hardware, effectively depriving consumers
| of any competitive choices. These restrictive agreements exited before
| 2000 but, in 2000, Microsoft ratcheted the restriction up so that OEMs
| are forced to forfeit all discounts otherwise earned if they ship any
| "naked machines" to consumers. This heightened restriction, which (on
| information and belief) continues to the present, prohibits PC users
| and PC retailers from buying and installing lower priced or better
| quality operating systems of their choice.
`----
http://edge-op.org/iowa/iowaconsumercase.org/assets/attachments/Petition.pdf
Microsoft's past stock options practice poses questions
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft in 1999 announced that it would end a policy of awarding
| options at monthly lows and said it would take a $217 million charge,
| though many details of that discontinued practice haven't been widely
| known, The Wall Street Journal said Friday.
|
| Those details raise questions about how Microsoft began the practice,
| what prompted the company to end it and whether the way the options
| were dated--at 30-day lows the month after they were
| granted--influenced other companies, it said.
`----
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6084617.html
,----[ Quote ]
| My background is finance and accounting....
|
| However, the Gates Buffet foundation grant is nothing more than a shell
| game in which control of assets for both Gates and Buffet remain the same.
|
| THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THAT THE ACCUMULATION OF WEALTH BY THESE TWO WILL BE
| MUCH MORE MASSIVE BECAUSE THEY WILL NO LONGER HAVE TO PAY ANY TAXES.
`----
http://www.mail-archive.com/futurew...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/msg03323.html
Lobbying Could Cause Legal Trouble for Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| "In the wake of the exposure of Microsoft's attempt to buy Sweden's vote on
| OOXML and Sweden's annulment of that vote due to irregularities, IBM's Rob
| Weir points out that the fiasco could cause anti-trust worries for Microsoft.
| He quotes ALLIED TUBE & CONDUIT CORP. v. INDIAN HEAD, INC., 486 U.S. 492
| (1988), which says 'What petitioner may not do (without exposing itself to
| possible antitrust liability for direct injuries) is bias the process by, as
| in this case, stacking the private standard-setting body with decision makers
| sharing their economic interest in restraining competition.'"
`----
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/31/2039226&from=rss
|
|
