12.19.07
Microsoft Caught Paying for People’s Love (Again)
Earlier this month we published an item which illustrates how Microsoft literally buys love. It pays people or at least gives them presents in exchange for better publicity. You are encouraged to read this item if you haven’t. Other recent examples include Microsoft’s use of money to buy OOXML support, including from Novell.
As disturbing as it has been, this is not over. We’ve received the following example by E-mail just hours ago and it makes a nice addition to the items above:
“As you see, it’s in French but it is short and sweet. It refers to an article published in the Swiss newspaper Le Temps on Monday (available for a payment of 2.50 Swiss francs.) But I find the Le Monde article sufficient and can offer a translation:”
[Translation:] 1,445: number of students in the world paid by Microsoft to promote favourable speech in their universities
“How Microsoft has infiltrated the Swiss universities” was the title of the Monday Le Temps. The Genevean newspaper pointed to these students charged with “forging links with their peers and the professors” to improve the image of Bill Gates’ firm in the universities. The program “Microsoft Student Partners” is not at all clandestine, it has an official Website at “http://student-partners.com”. It is no longer at all local: the 1,445 students at the service of Microsoft are active in 102 countries. In France, more than 100 students carry the title MSP and correspond with the Microsoft teams during their whole time in school. These French students have actively participated in the launch of the Vista operating system, organising 87 conferences and stands, leading 17 training sessions and moderating 42 blogs.
So, the gist of it is that Microsoft once again got caught astroturfing or at least paying money for pseudo support without disclosure (practically the same thing). The question to ask is: who else is being paid or rewarded (in disguise)?
The article speaks about professors being paid as well. I’m aware of one professor, Bill Weisgerber, who has been promoting Microsoft (and attacking GNU/Linux) on the Web for many years. Here is an E-mail I received about him last year after he had harassed me:
hi,
i just happened to notice that you spent some text debunking my old ‘friend’
bill weisgerber last spring.i went around with bill (& a host of other paid2post shills) on a nytimes
forum for over 3 years. despite being exposed for what/who they were/are,
they just would not quit their mindless pr firm hypenosys. at that time, the
nytimes was quite supportive of their charade. what a blight.just anecdotal.
best regards,
[anonymised]
Well, it all makes sense now. Microsoft has gone as far as poisoning academia as well. At one point, it even funded an academic study that mocks GPLv3. █
Related articles:
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.
DOUGman said,
December 19, 2007 at 8:31 pm
M$ student partners, whats this world coming to?
I have a question regarding M$ Gold Partners, do they get any kickbacks when they convert organizations to the M$ ideology? Something has always smelled fishy and I could never place my finger on it.
I know what M$ is thinking by doing this, get at the kids while they are young and easily waned into their Microsoft dogmatic BS in college. Whats next? Junior high??
D.
Roy Schestowitz said,
December 19, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Here is another set of examples that we have not covered before in this Web site.
Emphases (bold fonts) are mine