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Re: Microsoft Shills Attack Researcher, 'Pressure' His Employer

On Sep 24, 7:43 am, Roy Schestowitz <newsgro...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
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> I don't think this was ever posted here, so I'll post it now.
>
> http://www.cypherpunks.to/~peter/zdnet.html
>
> "This is a response to a series of articles by George Ou and Ed Bott of ZDNet
> stretching over a period of more than a month. I'll try to stay away from the
> assorted personal attacks in George and Ed's articles and just outline the
> details.
>
> "It all started with an email from George Ou, who decided, without ever hearing
> my talk on content-protection issues or seeing the slides for the talk, that
> what I'd said in the slides was wrong. I offered to send them to him, but by
> then he'd gone ahead and posted his conclusions anyway, still without ever
> actually having seen the slides that he's commenting on. Later he changed his
> story to claim quite emphatically that he wasn't attacking the slides at all,
> which seems a bit contradictory since the material wasn't present anywhere but
> the slides.
>
> "Dealing with him was quite weird in a number of other ways as well. For
> example whenever anyone anywhere posted something that happened to agree with
> his position, I'd immediately get a gleeful email from him crowing about it. I
> never even saw the articles, because George would beat me to them every time.
> It's as if I had my own personal "news about George Ou" news-clipping service
> provided for me by ZDNet."
>
> [...]
>
> "(the "bunch of freaking morons" includes Bruce Schneier and Charlie Demerjian
> of the Inquirer, whom he refers to in a preceding email).
>
> "And finally here's ZDNet's technical director signing off (again, censored so
> this page doesn't get blacklisted):
>
> "From: George Ou <george...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2007 7:03 PM
> To: XXXXXXXXXXXXX
> Subject: RE: Gutmann Vista DRM paper uses shoddy Web Forums as source
>
> You know, you are a f***ing moron.  End of discussion.
>
> "(Since this was posted I've had a number of emails pointing out that George
> has acquired quite a reputation for this sort of behaviour, sometimes in
> private mail and sometimes on public blogs. If you've got any choice examples
> of his wit and wisdom, do send me a link or the text of the email, if there's
> enough interest I'll post the most amusing ones here)."
>
> Microsoft Smear(R). Learn it. savour it.
>
> Related:
>
> A Microsoft Slur in the OOXML Saga -- Did I Tell You or Did I Tell You? -
> Updated
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Remember I told you I've noticed that people who don't support Microsoft's
> | agenda end up the victim of smear campaigns?
> |
> | The New Zealand Open Source Society is reporting that an employee at
> | Microsoft New Zealand recently sent an email to one of the technical bodies
> | advising an NB involved in the OOXML ISO process, smearing a man's
> | reputation, Matthew Holloway, apparently to undermine his technical input
> | which was critical of OOXML.
> `----
>
> http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080318151252279
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | "It also was strange to see just how many resources are aligned
> | against me when I write a story about Microsoft."
> `----
>
> http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/03/enough_about_me.html
>
> Tim Bray: Life Is Complicated
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Those with long memories might suggest a parallel between Rick’s position and
> | mine when in 1997, I was sitting on the XML Working Group and co-editing the
> | spec, on a pro bono basis as an indie consultant. Netscape hired me to
> | represent their interests, and when I announced this, controversy ensued.
> | Which is a nice way of saying that Microsoft went berserk; tried
> | unsuccessfully to get me fired as co-editor, and then launched a vicious,
> | deeply personal extended attack in which they tried to destroy my career and
> | took lethal action against a small struggling company because my wife worked
> | there. It was a sideshow of a sideshow of the great campaign to bury Netscape
> | and I’m sure the executives have forgotten; but I haven’t.
> `----
>
> http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2007/01/24/Mixup
>
> Microsoft Critics Assigned PR "Spooks"
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | San Jose Mercury technology reporter Dan Gilmore recently discovered he's
> | been assigned a special "owner" at one of Microsoft's public relations firms,
> | Waggener-Edstrom. These spin-masters are attached to troublesome journalists
> | like Gilmore who have the temerity to write uncomplimentary articles about
> | the company or its products.
> |
> | The really irksome reporters, according to documents spirited from the
> | Waggener-Edstrom offices, are also assigned "buddies" at Microsoft itself.
> | John Dodge, the editor of PC Week, has a special buddy at Microsoft, and Mary
> | Jo Foley at Smart Reseller, is the subject of a "Mary Jo six month plan.''
> |
> | These "owners" and "buddies" are just there to "help" the journalists, of
> | course. How dare we think otherwise?
> `----
>
> http://www.vcnet.com/bms/departments/dirtytricks.shtml
>
> Q&A: Former Mass. CIO feels 'bittersweet pride' after battles with Microsoft,
> legislature
>
> ,----[ 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=viewArticleBas...
>
> ,----[ 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
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As far as I can see, you original link doesn't identify the researcher
as Peter Gutmann.

A while back I posted a link to Gutmann's slides on Vista DRM on
cola.  There was a discussion to which it was relevant.  I didn't
notice that the thread was cross-posted to some microsoft group.   So
then I got a hostile response from some Microsoft type about how
Gutmann's slides are a bunch of lies, and it had all been proven by
George Eu.  So I posted a link in response to Dan Dilger's article on
Eu, which was pretty devastating.  The Microsoft guy never responded
to that.

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