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EU plays catch-up with US digital economy
,----[ Quote ]
| The cost of a European patent is almost five
| times that in the US and three times the cost
| in Japan, according to figures from a study
| by the Association of Competitive
| Technologies.
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http://www.euractiv.com/en/infosociety/eu-plays-catch-us-digital-economy-news-494724
Banksters Create New Fake "Consumer" Group
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| According to a story in the Washington Post
| by Mike Konczal, the Big Banks have just
| created an astroturf or cashroots group
| called the "Consumers Against Retail
| Discrimination Alliance" to fight a provision
| of the financial reform bill: This nominal
| "consumers" group is constituted of really,
| really big "consumers," according to Konczal,
| including "Visa, MasterCard, Bank of America,
| JP Morgan Chase, U.S. Bank, Citi" and almost
| every banking association that is part of the
| more accurately named "Electronic Payments
| Coalition." They have attempted to label this
| a corporate "civil rights" issue by talking
| about "discrimination" -- or "retail
| discrimination," that is.
`----
http://www.prwatch.org/node/9089
Related:
What Shall We Do About Software Patents?
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| The ACT seems to think that the patent system works so well in the US, that
| Europe absolutely must ditch its own quaintly fragmented approach, and adopt
| a nicely unified one closer to the Stateside model.
|
| Pity, then, that books like Patent Failure provide hundreds of pages of
| incontrovertible evidence that the patent system there actually costs more
| money â in terms of litigation â than it generates for patent holders, with
| the possible exception of the pharmaceutical industry (and we all know what
| paragons they are, especially in their licensing terms to developing
| countries.)
`----
http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?blogid=14&entryid=1632
MS struggles to discredit Linux
,----[ Quote ]
| What's cheaper than an OS you can buy outright once and install on every PC
| in your shop -- and upgrade cost-free for eternity to boot? Why, a slew of
| cheesy licenses for Microsoft Windows, 'Doze Division VP Brian Valentine
| claims in his latest cheerleading effort for his sales associates.
|
| That's right; a putatively independent analysis by 'we'll-conclude-anything'
| whores DH Brown is going to rip Linux a new one and find that Windows is
| actually cheaper. How Valentine knows this is anyone's guess. Perhaps he has
| a mole in the Brown organization as good as the one we have in his. Or
| perhaps MS simply paid for it. We don't know.
|
| It also appears that MS has bought off a number of Linux/Sun 'insiders' whose
| job it will be to explain to the sales team how to pitch the illusory
| advantages of Windows to unsuspecting IT managers. "Dumber people can run
| Windows" is the best advert I personally can come up with, though this is
| without the benefit of expensive analysts and turncoat 'insiders' to feed me
| intriguing tidbits.
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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/01/02/ms_struggles_to_discredit_linux/
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