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Jeremy Allison Calls Microsoft Dangerous Elephant
http://linux.slashdot.org/story/10/01/21/1449234/Jeremy-Allison-Calls-Microsoft-Dangerous-Elephant
Illuminating the elephant in the open source room
,----[ Quote ]
| Allison contends the OOXML case shows the
| lengths Microsoft will go to in order to
| create lock-in, where consumers are forced
| to buy software or hardware from one vendor
| or its partners and freedom of choice is
| restricted.
|
| "One of the worst things that happened out
| of that, [is that the ISO] which was
| previously respected by people that didn't
| know it so well, became absolutely
| despised," he said. "There are some
| countries now thinking of pulling out [of
| ISO] because it is simply not worth
| participating in a process that is so
| obviously corrupted."
|
| However, the result was followed by two
| European Commission anti-trust probes into
| Microsoft's behaviour which led to a
| settlement where the software giant had to
| offer customers a choice of internet
| browsers.
|
| The second probe into Microsoft's limiting
| of file format choices in its Office
| productivity suite also led to the vendor
| changing track. In the end, the ODF and
| other non-proprietary formats were offered
| to consumers to fend off European Union
| (EU) antitrust regulators and block massive
| fines.
`----
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/333351/illuminating_elephant_open_source_room/
Judge nixes class-actions in Microsoft WGA lawsuit
,----[ Quote ]
| A federal judge has killed class-action
| allegations in a lawsuit that accused
| Microsoft of misleading consumers when it
| fed them anti-piracy software under the
| auspices of a critical security update,
| according to court documents.
|
| The move means that Microsoft will not be
| faced with millions in potential damages.
| Last fall, Microsoft's lawyers argued that
| a class-action lawsuit could involve "tens
| of millions" of customers who might be owed
| "hundreds of millions of dollars" if the
| company lost the case.
|
| A class-action would have let virtually
| anyone who owned a Windows XP PC in
| mid-2006 to join the case without having to
| hire an attorney.
`----
http://www.techworld.com.au/article/333384/judge_nixes_class-actions_microsoft_wga_lawsuit?fp=2&fpid=1&rid=1
Related:
Microsoft OOXML: Dead Format Walking
,----[ Quote ]
| Since most Office users would be happy to continue using Microsoft's old
| binary formats, and since those for whom open standards are important would
| probably prefer ODF or PDF formats anyhow, I won't be surprised if OOXML
| quietly dies before that future Office iteration ever sees the light of day.
`----
http://blogs.eweek.com/brooks/content/office/microsoft_ooxml_dead_format_walking.html
ISO Fantasy
,----[ Quote ]
| What OOXML Is  The ISO process, brutal and corrupt as it was, has been
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| covered to death by everyone. Its output, soon to be known as ISO/IEC 29500,
| differs from ECMA-376 in two ways. Â
|
| [...]
|
| What Microsoft really wanted was that ISO stamp of approval to use as a
| marketing tool. And just like your mother told you, when they get what they
| want and have their way with you, theyâre probably not gonna call you in the
| morning.
`----
http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2008/04/15/OOXML
BE, NL: governments will not use ISO OOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| Asked to comment on last week's ISO approval for OOXML, Fedict's chief IT
| architect, Peter Strickx, said: "There will have to be multiple
| implementations, in order for us not to become dependent on a single vendor.
| It will also have to be compatible with open standards that we already use,
| in this case Open Document Format ODF."
`----
http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7562
DE: German Foreign Ministry will not use ISO OOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| In the weeks prior to the second round of votes last September,
| irregularities were reported in the standard committees in many participating
| countries. These claims continued until after the final discussion, in
| February and March this year.
|
| The European Commission has started an investigation into the allegations.
| The Commission sent a letter to all EU national standards committees in
| Europe, requesting information about the process. Sources at the Commission
| declined to comment, as the investigation is on-going and no official
| position has yet been adopted.
`----
http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7561
Software wars
,----[ Quote ]
| Allegations of committee-stuffing, the outcome of votes overridden by
| political appointees, a final decision that many involved consider tainted:
| this may sound like a discredited election in some third world country. But
| it is actually a description of an ugly fight over international technical
| standards that wrapped up this week. Microsoft came out on top, but at the
| cost of tarnishing its reputation and the credibility of an important
| back-room process that oils the wheels of many global industries.
`----
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/c9743360-01a8-11dd-a323-000077b07658,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2Fc9743360-01a8-11dd-a323-000077b07658.html%3Fnclick_check%3D1&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.computerworlduk.com%2Ftool
Martin Bryan: we are getting âstandardization by corporationâ
,----[ Quote ]
| A November informative report of Martin Bryan, Convenor, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34
| WG1 highlights the fallout of the ECMA-376 fast-track process for ISO. He
| says he is 'glad to be retiring before the situation becomes impossible'
|
| [...]
|
| In what is an astonishingly outspoken report, Martin Bryan, Convenor, ISO/IEC
| JTC1/SC34 WG1 has given us insight into the total mess that Microsoft/ECMA
| have caused during their scandalous, underhand and unremitting attempts to
| get - what is a very poorly written specification {i.e. DIS 29500 aka OOXML,
| AR} - approved as an ISO standard. â
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-30107/martin-bryan:we-are-getting-standardization-by-corporation
Dysfunctional ISO - Courtesy of Microsoft
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2007/12/dysfunctional-iso-courtesy-of-microsoft.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 Microsoftâs 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
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
Protest in front of Town Hall for Document Freedom
,----[ Quote ]
| The protest organized by FSUG and FCI seems to have attracted a lot of
| deserved attention, despite the hurried execution.
`----
http://hpnadig.net/blog/Protest-for-Document-Freedom
Techies protest proprietary standards; seek policy
,----[ Quote ]
| Ever since the International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) vote on April
| 2 adopted Microsoftâs Office Open XML (OOXML) as a document standard, techie
| blogs and websites have been inundated with posts and articles voicing their
| opposition to proprietary software and technical issues with the new
| standard.
`----
http://www.hindu.com/2008/04/15/stories/2008041554380500.htm
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