04.02.08
French President Knows Better Than TCs What’s Good for His People (Updated)
From technical debates at the lower level we find ourselves ascending all the way up to the top, sometimes finding political corruption.
Recall the reports about Bill Gates phoning the Mexican president (obviously not to discuss technical details). More phonecalls were made and some sentimental blackmail came from that man too.
And now there is France, whose president is claimed to have intervened with an already-made decision on OOXML.
Confidential sources say that President Sarkozy has intervened himself in the French position on Microsoft OOXML, asking members of the committee to revert their position, and support an abstention. Our sources say he was approached by a lobbyist during his 3-days trip in England. The intervention has been made on Friday.
Speaking of England, another investigation seems to be on its way there.
We have tracked some more of Sarkozy’s moved in [1, 2, 3]. He is often seen pushing Microsoft agenda and he was also caught vacationing for free at the house of a former Microsoft executive. Only yesterday we saw Hewlett-Packard's role in France, as well (urging to change votes on OOXML in favour of Microsoft).
When exports say that OOXML has become a political question, they don’t refer to politics only at a corporate level, e.g. Google versus Microsoft. It’s really the ‘proper’ politics that are equally involved, yet we often fail to see it. Remember this video and another one with Larry Lessig, who strives to change congress at the moment. The government is said to be run by corporations (and for corporation), but that’s not news.
Also recall our latest summary of OSBC and be aware that Matt Asay turns out to be a friend of Jason Matusow of Microsoft and OOXML infamy. Jason Matusow is an habitual liar and dirty tricks harborer [1, 2], just like the company he works for. Why and how did Asay befriend this man? █
Update adds the following reference from CIO Today:
In France, unconfirmed reports claim that President Nicolas Sarkozy intervened with the French body to force a change from a no vote to an abstention.
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.