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Press Release: ISO captured by vendor Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| ISO members failed to disapprove the Open XML format. Microsoft has
| compromised the International Standards Organisation (ISO) during the rush to
| get a stamp for their Office OpenXML (OOXML), using unfair practices such as
| committee stuffing in several countries and political interventions of
| ministers in the standardization process.
|
| [...]
|
| Pieter Hintjens, of the European Software Market Association, says:"Nobody
| wants standards you can buy. Microsoft bought a standard at ECMA, now they
| bought ISO. Who wants this?"
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-50857/press-release:iso-captured-by-vendor-microsoft
OpenXML: Newton’s Third Law
,----[ Quote ]
| Thus, managers of the major IT governmental organizations in Brazil,
| Venezuela and South Africa wrote and co-signed an open letter to ISO, to
| express their dissatisfaction with the final result of this all.
|
| The letter was also signed by managers of similar entities in Ecuador,
| Paraguay and Cuba, in a clear signal that this affected more people than I
| imagined.
|
| Reading the text of the letter, I’ll not summarize anything here because it
| is worth be read in full, I reminded of Newton’s third law: “For every action
| there is an equal, but opposite, reaction.”
`----
http://homembit.com/2008/09/openxml-newtons-third-law.html
Nations Question ISO's Merit Following Dropped OOXML Appeals
,----[ Quote ]
| The OOXML fast-track process and subsequent approval vote in the ISO was
| riddled with complaints that Microsoft acted unscrupulously, the standards
| process was not implemented properly and the specification approved was too
| unwieldy to implement. As a result, the national bodies of Brazil, India,
| South Africa and Venezuela filed protests.
`----
http://www.pcworld.com/article/150577/.html?tk=rss_news
Recent:
EU Says Governments Could Bar Microsoft From Bidding
,----[ Quote ]
| Governments contracting IT work could conclude that Microsoft's antitrust
| history constitutes "grave professional misconduct" and ban the company,
| according to the European Commission.
`----
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/147175/eu_says_governments_could_bar_microsoft_from_bidding.html
EU: Europarlement testing Ubuntu, OpenOffice and Firefox
,----[ Quote ]
| The European Parliament's IT department is testing the use of GNU/Linux
| distribution Ubuntu, OpenOffice, Firefox and other Open Source applications,
| the British MEP James Nicholson explained last week in a letter to Italian
| MEP Marco Cappato.
`----
http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7565
Is Microsoft Now Banned from EU Contracts?
http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=697&blogid=14
Euro MP thinks Microsoft should be banned from government contracts
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/10/member-eu-parliament-asks
Green MEP says Microsoft should be excluded from EU contract awarding procedure
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/106338/from/rss09
EC probes OOXML standards-setting process
,----[ Quote ]
| A spokesman for the European Commissioner for Competition, Neelie Kroes, told
| The Register that regulators were continuing to scrutinise interoperability
| issues related to Microsoft’s products following complaints from the
| Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) group.
|
| As part of that process, the EC formally contacted a number of national
| standards bodies, including the Norwegian Standards Institute (NSI),
| requesting more details about possible irregularities in the OOXML
| standardisation process.
|
| [...]
|
| “It must be stressed that it is not the Commission's intention to influence
| the outcome of this process, but the Commission considers it essential to
| ensure that European competition law is not violated in the course of the
| standard setting process,” he said in an email to El Reg.
|
| In January the EC began formal anti-trust probes against Microsoft in two
| cases where it was alleged that the multinational firm had abused its strong
| market position. As part of the investigation into the first case, the
| Commission said that it would scrutinise OOXML on the grounds that the
| specification doesn't work with those of competitors.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/04/ooxml_ec_investigation_iso/
Related:
EU Commission Investigating Microsoft's MSOOXML Push
,----[ Quote ]
| I hope they think to investigate the smear campaigns that seem to always
| happen to anyone on the other side from Microsoft. What happened to Peter
| Quinn was by no means unique.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080208151410252
Corrupt countries were more likely to support the OOXML document format
,----[ Quote ]
| Is this just a random coincidence? The median of the CPI index of the above
| mentioned 70 countries is 3.95. Of the most corrupted half (CPI index less
| than 3.95) 23 or 77% voted for approval (approval or approval with comments)
| and 7 or 23% for disapproval; 5 abstained. Of the least corrupted half (CPI
| index more than 3.95) 13 or 54% voted for approval and 11 or 46% voted for
| disapproval; 11 abstained - see the table below.
`----
http://www.effi.org/blog/kai-2007-09-05.en.html
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