04.02.08
The Confessions of a Microsoft Lobbyist in ECMA
As obligatory background about Jan van den Beld consider the following:
- ECMA's van den Beld + Microsoft's Lobbying Arm (CompTIA) = Total Sellout (Updated)
- Microsoft Lobbyist from ECMA Goes Batting for OOXML
- Here Come the “Paid Microsoft [OOXML] Shills”
Noooxml.org, having done some further research on this, brings this latest scoop:
On a Microsoft event in Portugal, called TechDays 2008, ex-ECMA and now CompTIA (Microsoft lobbyst group) member, Jan van den Beld explains how multiple standards come to be on ECMA
[…]
What does Jan van den Beld - former Secretary General of ECMA - have to say about multiple standards? He seems to be puzzled himself!
Quote from his presentation:
Q: Why do you want to have 5 [DVD related] formats? Do you still call that standardization?
A: You are well paid. Shut upCheck out the video at 4:10 and amaze yourself!
This was on Microsoft Techdays 2008, in Portugal.
As we have seen before, the same lobbyist, who used to work at ECMA, does a lot of ‘legwork’ in a fairly aggressive fashion. Here is some more information.
Jan van den Beld ’sents love letters’ to the ISO system and leaches out against parties who want to appeal.
Where does Microsoft find these people and how much does it cost the company to abuse the system in the most careless of ways? As the case of Jan van den Beld demonstrates, it’s almost as though Microsoft has insiders at every level of this process. █
Also of interest:
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.