02.09.10

Norwegian Agency for Public Management and eGovernment Slams Microsoft OOXML

Posted in Europe, Open XML, OpenDocument, Standard at 9:09 am by Roy Schestowitz

Summary: The authorities in Norway justify the country’s decision to reject Microsoft’s standards-hostile ploy

IT was almost 2 years ago that people of Norway were marching in the streets after Microsoft corruption. We wrote about the subject in:

• Steve Pepper Spills the Beans on MSOOXML in Norway
• Norway Embraces Open Standards, Many Others Follow Suit
• Norway Changes OOXML Vote, Receives New Microsoft Search Base (Updatedx2)
• Microsoft’s Latest OOXML Corruptions in Germany, Croatia, Norway
• OOXML Dirty Tricks Miscellanea: Norway, Misdirection, GPL Exclusion as Standard
• Microsoft’s OOXML Corruptions Have Ruined Standard Norway
• OOXML in Norway, Denmark, and Poland… Looking More Closely at the Stories (Updated)
• OOXML Protests Scheduled in Norway, Microsoft’s Reputation Claimed Tarnished
• Norway’s Protest Against Microsoft Abuse Goes More Public (Updated)

According to this report from IDG, Norway’s final decision to stick with ODF was the correct one. It has received endorsement from the Norwegian Agency for Public Management and eGovernment.

Microsoft’s XML-based office document format, OOXML, does not meet the requirements for governmental use, according to a new report published by the Norwegian Agency for Public Management and eGovernment (DIFI).

The agency wants to start a debate over the report as part of its work on standards in the Norwegian government.

For the Norwegian government, PDF is the recommended file format for publishing noneditable files, while Open Document Format (ODF), the native file format of productivity suites including the open-source OpenOffice.org, is the recommended format for publishing editable files. Versions of PDF, ODF and OOXML have all been adopted as international standards by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).

“They are not implementing all parts of the OOXML standard, so he [technical director of Microsoft Denmark] is lying.”

–Mogens Kühn Pedersen, chair of the Danish Standards Committee

One of our readers has highlighted this comment from the accompanying Slashdot item:

[OOXML] combines “OO” and “XML”, two of the most powerful buzzwords the computing industry has ever seen.

I’m not trying to be funny, either. You wouldn’t believe the number of managers I’ve had to deal with who see those terms, and go apeshit crazy about how good something is. Tell them your technology is “object-oriented”, and they’re sold. Then tell them it involves “XML”, and they absolutely can’t resist it.

Mind you, these people tend to not know a thing about the technical aspects of software development. They don’t know any programming languages, but are convinced that “object-oriented” is the ONLY way. They haven’t got a clue what an XML document even looks like, but insist that it can do anything.

The only thing managers these days slurp up more than “OO” and “XML” are “Web Services”. If Microsoft had named it OOXMLWebServices instead of just OOXML, ODF would’ve been destroyed years ago.

We have written about this deceiving name many times before. It’s also intended to make people (including via search engines) wrongly associate “Open Office” with “Office Open [OOXML]. Microsoft has used these shameless tricks for years. █

“The Norwegian [OOXML] affair was a scandal and we are still pursuing it. We haven’t given up hope of changing the vote back to No, and we hope people who experienced similar travesties in other countries will do the same.”

–Steve Pepper

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Steve Ballmer Visits Obama Once Again as His Fight Against Google Continues

Posted in FOSS, Finance, Google, Microsoft, Steve Ballmer at 8:55 am by Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Updates on the competition between Microsoft and Google — a rivalry that takes political form

GOOGLE is gradually devaluing Microsoft’s products and Steve Ballmer understands that (Microsoft’s poor results [1, 2, 3, 4] are related to this). Free software and Google challenge Microsoft’s fundamental business model, as opposed to Apple for example. Moreover, watch how Google became an attractive employer, whereas Microsoft dropped like a stone (for several years now, even before the massive layoffs that are still ongoing, having officially begun over a year ago). From CNET:

Among the technology firms that ended up on Fortune’s list were SAS at No. 1, Google at No. 4, Cisco Systems at No. 16, Adobe Systems at No. 42, and Microsoft at No. 51. The firms scored points for a couple of different factors, including top pay and best perks. And with the job market still tight, Fortune also looked at the job growth for each company.

Microsoft is always trying to cause trouble to Google. Microsoft sued Google last month, having previously used other parties to sue Google. See for example:

• Microsoft is Still Attacking Google via Publishers
• More Antitrust Pressure for Yahoo!-Microsoft, Google Blocked by MSDOJ
• Microsoft, Google Sued; Microsoft Funds Legal Action Against Google
• Who’s Bugging Google and Apple? (Updatedx2)
• Lobby Which Google Said Was in Microsoft’s Pocket Wants Google’s Street View Shut Down
• Microsoft and Politics (Against Google)

Here is what Microsoft has been up to in recent days:

• ABC News: Microsoft: Google Likely to Face Questions on Ads
• CNBC: Microsoft lawyer: Google may face antitrust queries over search advertising market share

This is typical. This type of attitude is highlighted in a new post which is titled “Steve Ballmer, did you ‘f***ing kill Google’ yet?”

Well About 1/2 a decade ago, a key individual defected from Microsoft to Google that lead to one heck of lawsuit. According to official documents, Steve said he was going to ‘fucking kill Google’ as he hurled a chair across the room. literally.

[...]

We were just wondering Mr. Ballmer, did you ‘fucking kill Google’ yet? We figured 1/2 a decade has passed now and we were just wondering the status of it.

More in this new article:

If you think this is creepy, then join the club. In terms of collective IQ, Google is the smartest company in cyberspace: for five years it’s been taking the cleverest graduates from elite universities and the most experienced computer engineers. It’s been such a magnet for talent that even Microsoft is enraged. In 2005, for example, an ex-Microsoft engineer named Mark Lucovsky alleged in a sworn statement to a Washington state court that Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, became so enraged on hearing that Lucovsky was about to leave Microsoft for Google, that he picked up his chair, and threw it across his office. (Ballmer called this a “gross exaggeration”.)

Well, nothing that Microsoft has tried (and it tried so many things at a very high cost) has helped it accomplish the goal of simply destroying another competitor. Microsoft managed to pretty much destroy Yahoo! but not Google. Yahoo! Search got hijacked by Microsoft after an AstroTurfing campaign funded by Microsoft had derailed a deal between Yahoo! and Google. Microsoft was tearing apart the company through its staff and Microsoft fans are now saying that “Yahoo! Continues to Slip”. One has to wonder why, eh? Well, here is another fleeing executive of Yahoo! (more here):

It took three years, but former Yahoo executive Dan Rosensweig believes he has found another great Internet gig.

Rosensweig’s career shifted in a new direction this week when he took over as CEO of Chegg.com, a Silicon Valley startup that says it has rented about 2.4 million textbooks to cash-strapped college students since its 2007 inception.

AOL is with Google, still:

Armstrong Hints AOL Will Renew Search Deal With Google: ‘Distribution Is Almost As Important To Us As Money’

[...]

During today’s AOL earnings call, which just finished, CEO Tim Armstrong dropped the strongest hint yet that Google is the front-runner in negotiations for who will power search across AOL properties. Google is AOL’s current partner, as it has been for nearly a decade, but snatching the search partnership away would be a coup for Microsoft’s Bing search engine. Bing wants the search deal, which would help it increase its total volume of searches by a couple percentage points since AOL on its own has the fifth largest search share in the U.S.

Here comes Steve Ballmer to the White House (yes, again [1, 2, 3, 4]):

DJ Obama Meeting With Microsoft’s Ballmer, Amex’s Chenault, 8 Other Execs

A group of 10 top corporate executives, including Microsoft Corp.’s Steve Ballmer and American Express Co.’s (AXP) Ken Chenault, will join President Obama for lunch at the White House Thursday, an administration official said.

Some weeks ago we saw Ballmer using his "innovation" propaganda to have Obama promote patents and the Huffington Post helped Ballmer in that regard. Ballmer can also poison the government against Google and fight against the planned fixes for taxation policy (Microsoft is a tax dodger [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]).

Bank of America, Microsoft, Exxon May Face Obama Tax Increases

[...]

Bank of America Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Microsoft Corp. would be among companies paying $400 billion in additional taxes under President Barack Obama’s $3.8 trillion budget.

On several occasions in the past we wrote about Microsoft’s influence in the Department of Justice [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] — an immense influence which led to discrimination against Google in that department.

“Microsoft is pulling out every favor it’s got … It has a very close relationship with DOJ and the White House, and all of that pressure is being brought to bear.”

–“Microsoft lobbies to fight Yahoo-Google pact”

Watch what the Department of Justice is doing to Google right now:

• UPDATE: Justice Dept Voices More Concerns On Google Books Settlement
• DOJ opposes revised Google book deal

Kara Swisher and a few other journalists argue that Google too lobbies heavily [1, 2], with Google Watch (Ziff Davis [1, 2, 3]) going further:

Google, Microsoft Meet in the Lobby on Capitol Hill

Google and Microsoft compete in search, cloud computing and Web services, but their battles extend from boardroom bargaining with customers to the nation’s capitol.

One has to remember that when it comes to lobbying, there are secret spendings and political power that is unaccounted for. Microsoft’s influence over the government has become inherent in the system and it’s possible that Google is just more transparent when it comes to lobbying disclosures. Either way, lobbying should ideally be eliminated altogether.

With Google’s domination in video (Microsoft is far behind), there is likely to be regulatory pressure that goes beyond just search.

Google has a problem in China. But it may have bigger headaches in Europe.

According to another perspective:

Germans and Frenchmen are more likely to Google themselves than are Brits and Americans.

The German and French authorities recommended that people drop Internet Explorer [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12] after repeated cases of Microsoft negligence [1, 2, 3].

Also in the news in recent days:

1. Google joins the ‘kill-IE6′ campaign

2. A Tad Too Late, Google Begins Phase-Out of IE6

3. Google pushes Chrome browser as PC battle looms

Google has taken the unusual step of using real-world advertising to promote its Chrome web browser in Europe ahead of a regulatory change that will make it easier for consumers to switch Web browsers.

4. Time to die, but Microsoft can’t kill Internet Explorer 6

World governments want you to stop using IE6. Microsoft does too. But the software giant claims its hands are tied — it’s like a drug. Why Microsoft can’t stop supporting IE6.

Google can help the elimination of Microsoft's threat to Free software. For that reason, it is better to favour Google. Rumours suggest that Google might buy Canonical. █

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Microsoft’s Hostile Takeover of the Healthcare System

Posted in FOSS, Microsoft, Windows at 7:26 am by Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Microsoft wants to make medical records and management of patients a lot more dependent on Windows and its own private servers

MICROSOFT has just announced another medical takeover. The following text has an interesting description for Microsoft, calling it “developer and licensor of software solutions”.

Microsoft Corporation, a developer and licensor of software solutions, has acquired Sentillion, Inc., a developer of identity and access management solutions for the healthcare industry. Both the companies are based in the US.

There is more information about it here and here. It’s not the first acquisition in this area. A few weeks ago we showed that Microsoft was trying to make the healthcare system dependent on Microsoft’s existence [1, 2]. The NHS is already captive to a high degree [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], but Microsoft wants to expand its influence over people’s lives (and deaths). Ballmer’s tour across the United States (to influence health professionals) carries on and he is even seeding some money to entrap the system:

To that end, Microsoft, along with the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), announced new “Innovation through Technology” grants – in which the computing giant will donate $1 million in software and the HCA will give $250,000 in cash to Tennessee community agencies that focus on, among other areas, primary health.

It is a trap, but large companies like Siemens, a top software patents lobbyist in Europe, are still falling for this [1, 2, 3, 4]. There is a sucker born every minute, including those who are willing to pass records of patients to a convicted monopolist that disregards the law. Microsoft is even doing this in Haiti — a subject that wrote about twice last month (the notion of “disaster capitalism” and the PR whose purpose is possibly to distract people from the role of Free software in Haiti [1, 2]).

Microsoft Nick and Fried are among the distractors. They are arguably trying to take attention away from the real story, e.g.:

Crisis Commons – Open Source in Action for Disaster Relief

Over the past two weeks, I’ve been working to organize a CrisisCamp in Calgary. It was the 1 of 4 happening in Canada this weekend. Based on Barcamp, the focus was on solutions to aid the NGO”s and responders on the ground in Haiti. The code base is all open source and can be modified for other disasters that may occur globally.

Several CrisisCamp events have taken place globally since the quake hit Haiti on Jan 12th. Volunteers in cities across North America, Bogota in Colombia, and London, UK have coded solutions directly requested by non governmental organizations (NGOs) on the ground, all via a website submission page. Visit CrisisCommon for further insight

It is worth adding another item from the news [1, 2, 3]. Microsoft has been trying to control bar codes for several years now, without success. They want to tag objects and people using their patented ideas. It has been mentioned for years and it is not new, either. Nevertheless, last week it was promoted by the Microsoft boosters who pretend to be just innocent reporters.

Microsoft Tag, whose slogan is “Linking real life with the digital world,” is another stab at digital scanners that aim to connect printed materials with online content.

This could relate to the new acquisition of a “developer of identity and access management solutions for the healthcare industry”. Microsoft wants more control over society, even if it means patients and crowd control. Should we give Microsoft such powers? As the links below show, Microsoft and hospitals don’t mix. █

Related posts:

• Security Links: Another Hospital Falls Prey to Windows Spyware; Another Trojan and Botnet
• US Army Becomes Zombies Army; London Hospitals Still Ill (Windows Viruses)
• NHS Never Learns: Windows Viruses Leave British Patients to Die, Again
• How Many People Must Die Before Abandoning Windows?
• Utah Has Novell, SCO, and… Conficker in the Hospitals
• New Casualties of Microsoft Windows?

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More Mono and Patent Poison from Novell

Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Mono, Novell, Patents, SLES/SLED, Ubuntu at 6:40 am by Roy Schestowitz

Summary: “Pinta” comes from Novell staff and software patents tax (on SLE*) comes from Microsoft in the form of vouchers

YESTERDAY’S LONG post about Ubuntu has led to some reactions that include this rant about “Microsoft, Ubuntu, Canonical, Novell, and Mono”:

I was reading Goblin’s latest post at OpenBytes. He had some interesting points, but I thought he was missing a few things. At point I hit four paragraphs in response, I decided to answer him here instead, because I kept on thinking of more things to say. Goblin’s concern is that Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu family of GNU/Linux operating systems, is bringing out a new product called Ubuntu One, and they are going to make a Windows version as well as a Linux version.

Goblin’s is right – Canonical seems to be moving closer to Microsoft, both in supplying a Windows version of Ubuntu One, and because of Canonical’s new search deal with Yahoo. Since Yahoo has a search deal with Microsoft, Canonical is in effect delivering Microsoft Bing search results to GNU/Linux users.

[...]

Yes, Microsoft is trying to use it’s monopoly to force everyone else out of the market. They’ve bought several companies recently who produced products for multiple operating systems, and then proceeded to make them Windows only. So sorry, we don’t make a Unix version anymore… The only problem with this sort of action, is that those customers who used the Unix version now know what Microsoft thinks of their business. Nothing. So they aren’t going to buy more Microsoft product. There’s no gain for Microsoft. Oh, strictly Microsoft shops might buy a bit more, but they are becoming rarer, as the advantages of GNU/Linux servers become more evident.

[...]

Microsoft can limit competition in the marketplace for a short period of time only. This combined with the damage that Microsoft has done to their brand by releasing failures like Windows Vista, which limits the amount of money they can spend on monopolistic practises means that we are probably only five-ten years from seeing a collapse of the company, driven partly by their own incompetence, and partly by the negative image that the Microsoft brand has gained over the last five years. For example Novell made a deal with Microsoft, and Microsoft’s bad reputation has affected Novell’s reputation, to the point where a lot of techs, even those who had used a lot of Novell in the past, will not recommend Novell products anymore. Another example is the migration under way from Yahoo to Google, because of Yahoo’s pending deal with Microsoft.

[...]

But Gnome may no longer matter. There are rumours around the net about a ‘New Desktop Foundation.’ The rumour I heard was that this would be a fork of the Gnome desktop, removing all Mono and C# packages. There are enough people who are upset at Ubuntu, Gnome, and Miguel de Icaza (one of the founders of Gnome, and founder of the Mono project, and a Microsoft MVP) that it could possibly be true. I was also told that the use of ‘New’ was deliberate, since in English the pronunciation is the same as the pronunciation of ‘Gnu’.

OpenBytes has meanwhile done some digging into the project called “Pinta” (it was also mentioned yesterday). Guess what? This Mono project is developed by a Novell employee. Here are the details:

I’ve often made the point that if Mono is so great, where is the killer app for it? Where is the app that everyone MUST have? Whatever coders think about Mono and whatever they create, its the end-user who will decide on its future and I challenge anyone to show me a FOSS project that continues to run when nobody wants to use it.

Over at http://jpobst.blogspot.com/2010/02/over-holiday-break-i-stumbled-upon-this.html where the Pinta project has a blog, the authors description says:

…I’m Jonathan Pobst and I am a full-time open source hacker for Novell. I work on Mono, specifically on Mono Tools for Visual Studio.

and he certainly has “great” aspirations for this software. Full time open source hacker? You mean employee then? Implying that he is inspired by Paint.net. Inspired by Paint.net eh?…..moving swiftly on….

[...]

If I had seen a mass of Mono apps being released to “hungry” end users I may have seen the need, but when Novell is seemingly trying to create its own killer apps to promote its own implementation of a Microsoft framework then I really can’t see the point of this “gift to the world”.

In the case of Mono and its associated “wares” the most important person is not the coder(s) behind the projects, but the end-user – YOU. The success or failure of such projects will solely depend on if they are taken up by the “average desktop user” who outnumber enterprise/advocates/coders many times over. Ask yourself did you move to Linux for a “FOSS” implementation of a Microsoft technology which is headed up by Microsoft MVP Mr De Icazza or did you (like me) move because you were tired of inhibiting licenses, crashes, bloated software and the blame being placed at the feet of anyone but Microsoft? Were you fed up of the ethos of “everything has a price” or the takeaway menu style purchasing of Microsoft products? – I’ll let you decide.

We didn’t know that Novell staff had made this Mono program. It’s tempting to say that “Embrace and Extend” with Mono would potentially work here. If there was enough of Microsoft inside GNU/Linux, then maybe it would be ripe for adoption by Microsoft. It’s almost as though Microsoft is brewing and fortifying a GNU/Linux is can recommend, with software patents tax, .NET, and all the rest of the stuff.

As our reader Goblin put it last night, “It seems if people won’t use Mono to make apps, Novell will have to do it for them……so much for this “gift to the world”… I think its a “gift to the world” in the same way the atom bomb was.”

To another reader he said: “I’d like to give it back….Marty do you have the receipt? we can get a refund! … Stand by for the “Mono hater” or “Killing the FOSS” comments because I dare to give MY opinion on Mono.”

The Mono team often bullies those who disagree.

In other news, an article which was mentioned in last week's post (and some prior posts [1, 2]) is attempting to portray Microsoft as a GNU/Linux vendor. This portrayal is accentuated by this article, which is just a lot of spin. The comments in Linux Today complement it.

Rainer Weikusat writes: “According the article, Microsoft is the third-largest Linux vendor in the USA. That’s something to remember for the next round of ‘”Linux” is low-quality hobbyist’s software’ …”

Jose X is being more realistic and Bernard Swiss says: “Maybe I’m just being paranoid, but I have grave doubts that in this case, the word “sold” means what I would usually take it to mean.”

A lot of people miss the point that what Microsoft sells here is not GNU/Linux, let alone support. It sells licences to software patents it would not disclose. Matt Asay has connections with his former employer Novell and based on his conversations with old colleagues he said that he had “heard from Novell sales representatives that Microsoft sales executives have started calling the Suse Linux Enterprise Server coupons “royalty payments”,” so it means that they are selling patents, and mostly profiting at the expense of Red Hat. Another comment says that “What Microsoft has done here is keep Windows on all those computers by selling a support license for Linux installed in a virtual machine on a Windows host computer.

“Maybe I’m just being paranoid, but I have grave doubts that in this case, the word “sold” means what I would usually take it to mean.”
      –Bernard Swiss“So where companies where going to put Linux on the hardware, Microsoft keeps selling another copy of Windows and they still rule the system.

“Why else would they pay so much for so little? Just more protectionism and keeping keeping customers from really knowing what they are missing staying on Windows.”

It’s the same with Mono and the CodePlex Foundation. It’s about putting Microsoft in charge. Microsoft MVP Miguel de Icaza will soon be joined by Hunter [1, 2, 3], a Microsoft employee [1, 2] whose role is to help Microsoft fight against Free software and GNU/Linux for the sake of Windows, DRM, software patent racketeering and the usual criminal activities that Microsoft still specialises in. eWEEK has an unintentionally deceiving headline that says: “Canonical, CodePlex Foundation Announce New Leadership” █

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Patents Roundup: EFF Defends VoIP; Google, Apple, and Black Duck Stifle Progress; Microsoft Joins RPX

Posted in Apple, FOSS, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Patents at 5:58 am by Roy Schestowitz

“Fighting patents one by one will never eliminate the danger of software patents, any more than swatting mosquitoes will eliminate malaria.”

–Richard Stallman

Summary: A quick look at some patent news from the past week, ranging from defence to offence

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

THE EFF still fights one patent at a time. According to this new page, it is going after VoIP monopolies right now.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has won reexamination of an illegitimate patent on voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) that could cripple the adoption of new VoIP technologies.

IDG wrote about this too:

The patent, held by a small company called C2 Communications Technologies, is one of 10 that the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been trying to strike down for several years through its Patent Busting Project. On Friday, the patent office granted the EFF’s request for a re-examination, the EFF said. The digital civil-liberties organization argued that another applicant had submitted basically some of the same technology to the patent office before C2 did.

The EFF means well, but a better solution would be abolition of software patents as a whole. The problem is that companies like IBM, Google, Novell, and fronts like OIN are proponents of software patents, which makes them far from defenders of Free software.

Do Know Evil?

Google is acquiring/obtaining some more software patents. Here is the original report:

Google has filed at least four patent applications for technology it’s building into its Chrome browser to try to make the Web a more powerful foundation for applications.

Google is part of the software patents problem, just like IBM. Sometimes it gets sued.

Apple

A few weeks ago we explained why Apple too is part of the software patents problem. Here is Apple applying for some more patents and blocking developers’ use of their associated ideas/functions.

Apple this week notified iPhone developers that they cannot use the device’s GPS data to serve location-aware advertisements to users of App Store software.

[..]

One patent application described a dynamic home screen that would display specific applications automatically populated based on factors like the current location of the phone. For example, when traveling in San Francisco, a specific “San Francisco” icon could appear on the screen, and give users easy access to local weather, time, maps and contacts.

More information here and here:

Apple doesn’t appear to be opposed to location-based targeted advertising in principle. It has filed patents for location-based targeted advertising, especially in relation to offering currently playing songs or videos at a particular location for purchase via iTunes.

 

Is Apple’s banning iPhone applications that would use location data for displaying advertising not as onerous as anything Microsoft tried–and mostly didn’t get away with?

What about banning the word “Android” from the App Store? Like Apple thinks it can control the flow of information its customers receive? Give me a break.

This new article brings back memories of Apple’s patent fight with Microsoft. Well, Microsoft ripped off a lot of companies, Apple included.

Back in the dark ages, around 1991, Apple had some pretty cool Macs while PC users were still mired in DOS. Apple was making good money. Meanwhile, on the PC side, just marrying a mouse with DOS was the big thing. However, over time, Microsoft was able to copy what Apple was doing with the WIMP interface (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointing device).

That was due in part to poor IP protections and a strategic error made by John Sculley who opened the door, contractually, to a GUI for Microsoft back in the 1980s. That resulted in a lawsuit by Apple against Microsoft in 1988, one that Apple eventually lost. (The fascinating saga has been documented at Low End Mac.) Once that GUI door was opened, Microsoft was eventually able to mimic the Mac OS look and feel. Today, many non-technical users are not able to differentiate between Windows 7 and Snow Leopard, and that has to irk Apple.

Black Parasite Software

Black Duck’s new patent (mentioned in [1, 2]) is still receiving some press coverage. Confrontation with the SFLC too gets it some attention:

Bradley Kuhn, the technology director of the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) expressed dismay this week after learning that Black Duck Software was granted a patent that covers software methods for detecting and resolving open source software licensing conflicts. Kuhn, who plays a major role in the SFLC’s GPL enforcement efforts, contends that Black Duck’s patent is far from novel and describes techniques that he has been using for licensing compliance analysis for over a decade.

Black Duck was founded in 2002 with the aim of providing automated solutions for tracking the provenance of source code in applications. The company’s first product, called Protex, reached the market at a time when the software industry was being confronted by emerging legislation and high-profile litigation that raised concerns about software licensing practices. At the time, the ill-fated SCO trial was just starting to heat up and there were still unanswered questions about whether the newly-passed Sarbanes-Oxley Act would require more rigorous internal audits of software licensing. Black Duck turned the industry’s fear over these issues into a marketing tool and became one of the leading vendors in the compliance management market.

Black Duck ought to withdraw the patent or be perceived as even more of a parasite to the Free software community. With a Microsoft-tied genesis, Black Duck was always difficult to trust. This brings us to Microsoft.

Microsoft

Microsoft has signed a new patent deal, this time with Webmap Technologies.

Webmap Technologies, LLC has entered into a license agreement with Microsoft Corporation, a developer and licensor of software solutions. Webmap Technologies is a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corporation, through its operating subsidiaries, acquires, develops, licenses and enforces patented technologies. All the companies are based in the US.

Here is another new article about Microsoft’s patent deal with Funai — a deal which we previously wrote about in [1, 2, 3].

Software major Microsoft and Japanese home technology firm Funai have struck an IP cross-licensing deal, granting each other access to agreed areas of their patent portfolios. Set to bolster the companies’ mutual research and development (R&D) efforts in integrated media, the deal reflects the growing popularity of cross-licensing and patent pools in the technology field as key players aim to avoid IP disputes.

The most significant news though is probably to do with RPX [1, 2, 3], a patent pool/racket which Microsoft is entering. It was only a couple of weeks ago that Microsoft signed a deal with Acacia and now it joins RPX with the excuse that it needs protection from “patent trolls.”

Microsoft Corp., a technology giant that wins thousands of patents every year, has joined RPX Corp., a start-up network aimed at aggregating intellectual property to shield its members from what are known as “patent trolls.”

Here is a funny headline (“Tech Giants’ New Plan To Fight Patent Trolls”). It is funny given that Microsoft itself created the world’s largest patent troll, Intellectual Ventures. For Microsoft to complain about “patent trolls” would be nonsensical and hyporitical.

Microsoft has signed up for “patent insurance” with a startup called RPX, which buys up patents that could be used against its clients. Microsoft says this approach can save the industry billions of dollars by thwarting the industry’s controversial “patent trolls” and their litigation. But how much can a firm like RPX do to prevent litigation?

This is also covered at Law.com, requiring subscription though. Here is an article everyone can read at the site, as well as a few others:

Frustrated by litigation costs, Microsoft, Sony, and Nokia are paying third-party patent acquirers such as RPX to fend off patent lawsuits

Dallas News has this story to tell:

That’s what Melsheimer of Fish & Richardson PC’s Dallas office found in getting a $511.6 million verdict against Microsoft reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Plaintiff Alcatel-Lucent initially sought $50 billion in damages.

The ruling ended a seven-year odyssey featuring seven different cases and three jury trials. One case hinged on the value of a particular feature of Microsoft’s Outlook electronic mail program. Melsheimer and his team convinced the appeals court that the feature wasn’t part of Outlook’s appeal to customers, hence no damages.

We wrote about Fish & Richardson a couple of months ago.

Patents as Barriers

Against Monopoly has something to say about “Common Sense” and the Economist has published an article against patents (essentially monopolies).

DO PATENTS help or hinder innovation? Instinctively, they would seem a blessing, especially for backroom tinkerers. Patenting an idea gives its inventor a 20-year monopoly to exploit the fruit of his labour in the marketplace, in exchange for publishing a full account of how the new product, process or material works for all and sundry to see. For the inventor, that may be a reasonable trade-off. For society, however, the loss of competition through the granting sole rights to an individual or organisation is justified only if it stimulates the economy and delivers goods that change people’s lives for the better.

[...]

If truth be told, few inventions are really worth patenting. Time and again, surveys show that in both America and Europe companies rate superior sales and service, lead time and secrecy as far more important than patents when it comes to profiting from innovation. And, although applying for patents is relatively cheap, the cost of maintaining them can be horrendous. If the idea behind a patent has any commercial merit, it will attract imitators—and the inventor must be prepared to defend it in the courts. In a majority of cases, the cost of litigation will far exceed any revenue the inventor may subsequently earn from royalties or licensing.

By and large, the inventions and discoveries worth patenting are those in the pharmaceutical and biotech fields, where the pay-off for blockbuster drugs can amount to billions of dollars a year. Also, because the vast majority of inventions in such areas depend on unique molecular architectures, patents for new products are easier to defend in the courts. A me-too drug that is believed to violate a firm’s patent is either based on the same molecule or not.

[...]

An end to frivolous patents for business processes will be a blessing to online commerce. Meanwhile, the loss of patent protection for software could make programmers realise at last that they have more in common with authors, artists, publishers and musicians than they ever had with molecular architects and chip designers. In short, they produce expressions of ideas that are eminently copyrightable.

That could be good news for innovation. After all, who in his right mind would seek a lousy old patent offering a mere 20 years of protection when copyright can provide monopoly rights for up to 70 years after the author’s death? That one fact alone could spur more innovation than all the tinkering attempted so far.

A new study (already mentioned here) shows that patent trolls are taking over the system.

“Adobe pays patent royalties for the h264 codec so that video plays reliably worldwide, across browsers and OS’s,” says the president of the FFII, pointing to this from Adobe:

But in follow the comments from our CTO’s posting “Open access to Content and Apps”, I noticed that there are comments about Flash not being an “open” technology and questions about why we don’t open source the Player, so I thought I’d jump in and provide some details to help clear up some misconceptions and explain how open we are with the Flash Platform.

Another new article shows that one researcher has decided that sharing is better than not sharing (“open-source research”), which probably means that patents too will be affected.

One medical researcher applies generosity of spirit with his open-source research project designed to fight a tropical disease for which medical treatment is expensive and tough to come by.

[..]

Now, Scientific American reports that Australian chemist and entrepreneur Matthew Todd is initiating a totally open-source research project geared to the fight against the tropical disease schistosomiasis.

Sharing is better than not sharing. Scientists understand that. Investors don’t care. █

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United Nations and World Bank Help Bill Gates and Microsoft Colonise Africa

Posted in Africa, Bill Gates, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Patents at 4:56 am by Roy Schestowitz

Cover of Harper’s in the June 2009 issue

Summary: Microsoft’s and Gates’ incursions in Africa are backed by self-serving Western agenda of patents and proprietary software

THIS is a long post which contains links to the required evidence. For those who are not familiar with the lesser-known activities of the Gates Foundation, here is a place to start. From this point on we shall assume that the reader is already well informed and therefore will not repeat topics that were covered here before.

Bill Gates’ very special connections at the UN seem to be paying off as abusive monopolies beyond Microsoft (in which he is a stakeholder) are given contracts, with the UN’s help.

Microsoft’s PR buddy at CNET, namely Ina Fried, is offering a stage/platform to more blind-folded praise for the world’s notorious monopoliser. It’s about Gates and Monsanto. Over at Groklaw, Pamela Jones responds to it with: “Would those, by any chance, be patented genetically modified seeds? If so, who benefits? The poor?”

Yes, Groklaw too is familiar with how Gates is using Africa to advance his darling, Monsanto [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8].

We are encouraged to find that Groklaw too has begun complaining about the patent games Gates plays with his “foundation”. A lot of people are fearful of criticising the foundation, as though it’s some sort of holy or sacred institution that one cannot question. That’s what PR has led to — a dangerous false consensus that people are unable to challenge without being frowned upon.

“We are encouraged to find that Groklaw too has begun complaining about the patent games Gates plays with his “foundation”.”The GNU Web site has this old cartoon about Gates creating scarcity even in food that can be grown off the ground (soil) and medicine that can be shared to reduce suffering and hunger, much like Richard Stallman’s concept of “infinite bread”.

Gates tries to characterise all this as “charity” by donating access to man-made monopolies that he is funding (patents). The mainstream press plays along, putting some highly inflated prices (maybe 1000 times the production costs) on some medicine and then hailing Gates’ “generosity” [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. People must remember the economics of drug production and also remember that Gates is investing billions of dollars in this (investing, not donating). To him, it’s a win-win scenario; he gets to be portrayed as charitable while at the same time having another opportunity to make big profits. It’s not a lot of money because it’s just patents/licensing, so it’s the illusion of cost. It’s the same when Microsoft ‘”donates” software, putting some imaginary value on the “donation” (which is usually just a tool for blocking competition anyway).

Take this article for example. It’s a patent and PR campaign, not a “vaccine campaign”. As GatesKeepers put it a few days ago, there is too much “worship of the Gates Foundation”.

More worship of the Gates Foundation and it was not even published on a Sunday.

The mainstream press is highly deceiving here because it obeys those who pay the bill (or those editors/publishers who are paid by Bill). Had it actually investigated the issue, then it would discover the other side of the story, which is an inconvenience to banal and “safe” reporting (in the job security sense).

Watch Bill Gates as he makes some new and very silly PR trips [1, 2]. Recently he took his tour to the New York Times and the Huffington Post [1, 2, 3]. He is meeting the editors and chiefs, probably ensuring that they focus on his own side of the story. This whole charade leads to delusional writings from Ziff Davis for example. They too are paid by Microsoft [1, 2, 3]. No wonder a serial monopoliser is portrayed as a hero and saviour of the world. It’s not just Gates who is pulling those PR strings after committing crimes. The loot is usually sufficient to acquire a new public image, which is what a successful PR team is working behind the scenes for (this charade has gone on for years and it is quite relentless, much like a full-time job).

Let’s get to the interesting parts. As we already know, Gates strives to control what tomorrow’s generation will think of computers, patents, and himself of course. When not using or relying on the BBC to rewrite history in his favour, Gates (mis)uses the education systems around the world. We covered the subject in:

1. Bill Gates Puts in a Million to Ratify His Role as Education Minister
2. How the Gates Foundation is Used to Ensure Children Become Microsoft Clients
3. More Dubious Practices from the Gates Foundation
4. Microsoft Builds Coalitions of NGOs, Makes Political and Educational Changes
5. Microsoft’s EDGI in India: Fighting GNU/Linux in Education
6. Microsoft’s Gates Seeks More Monopolies
7. Gates Foundation Funds Blogs to Promote Its Party Line
8. Microsoft Bribes to Make Education Microsoft-based
9. Lobbyists Dodge the Law; Bill Gates Lobbies the US Education System with Another $10 Million
10. Gates Investments in Education Criticised; Monsanto (Gates-Backed) Corruption Revisited
11. Latest Vista 7 Failures and Microsoft Dumping

Mr. Reifman, who used to work for Microsoft before exposing the company’s massive tax dodge [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8], has just alluded to the subject:

Given the importance that Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation place on Education and the health of Washington communities, we are eager to hear how the Microsoft chairman squares its tax practices with the state’s $2.6 billion deficit and this dramatic court decision declaring the failure in funding for our public schools.

Retirement for Gates? Not so fast. He only moved on to some other monopolies, one of which is a monopoly on the world’s food supply. Our reader Fewa said that “David Suzuki has a great talk on that topic [...] and comes as a scientist who has done research in the field and is well respected”

Here is an article from David Suzuki which he pointed to:

I am a geneticist by training. At one time, I had one of the largest research grants and genetics labs in Canada. The time I spent in this lab was one of the happiest periods of my life and I am proud of the contribution we made to science. My introductory book is still the most widely used genetics text in the world.

When I graduated as a geneticist in 1961, I was full of enthusiasm and determined to make a mark. Back then we knew about DNA, genes, chromosomes, and genetic regulation. But today when I tell students what our hot ideas were in ‘61, they choke with laughter. Viewed in 2000, ideas from 1961 seem hilarious. But when those students become professors years from now and tell their students what was hot in 2000, their students will be just as amused.

“But there is a whole talk to the technical audience [...] and very persuasive,” added Fewa. Here it is on Google Video.

This brings us to the part where Gates is pulling strings like he always does. As we wrote last month, “Gates is already hooked up with the United Nations too (the core of it, nothing less). UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is even hanging out in Bill's and Melinda's own home and there are other connections like Microsoft’s Andrea Taylor.”

“Microsoft strikes partnership deal with UN in Africa,” says this article from last week.

At the ongoing African Union summit on ICT, Microsoft has signed an agreement with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa under which it will provide software, technical support and software development.

Why the heck does the UN assist a convicted monopolist in entering Africa? Well, Bill Gates’ connection with the UN is not one that can be immediately dismissed. He has people from the UN invited to his house and few Microsoft employees enjoy overlap with the UN (never mind his UN lobbying). There is more information about this here and here:

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and global computer giant, Microsoft Corporation have sealed a partnership memorandum of understanding that aims to foster regional cooperation and economic growth in Africa through the use of Information and Communication Technologies’ (ICTs).

Apparently, Microsoft can “spur digital development”, not just train the public to become a voluntary maintainer of Microsoft’s products.

The East African Community (EAC) and Microsoft have signed an agreement under which the latter would assist the regional body in its efforts to spur digital development in the region.

Have Gates & Microsoft have just used the UN to colonise Africa? The connections there could only help and therefore perpetuate the perceptions about UN corruption being prevalent.

A few months ago we showed how Microsoft had taken over Nigerian schools [1, 2] and now we find this in the press. From last week:

Two teenage students, Miss Oluwagbemisola Akinsipe (SS1) and Miss Ibukunoluwa Onaeko (SS2), both from Christ Ambassadors’ International College, Ibadan, Oyo State, have been awarded Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP).

The award is one of Microsoft’s certificates given on merit to anybody who registered and passed the qualifying examination.

Microsoft is colluding with the government at times and this one seems like another example.

Microsoft and Nigeria have released a song and video as part of a campaign to dissuade people from getting involved in cybercrime.

We have already shared some videos that show how the West is exploiting Nigeria for its oil. In general, Nigerians do have some reasons to be angry, especially given that Bill Gates, for example, contributes to death of children with his investments in cheaply-produced oil in Nigeria. The Los Angeles Times exposed that. A few days ago we found out that Nigerian militants retaliate.

Nigerian militants calling themselves the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC) said Sunday they had attacked a major Shell oil pipeline in the volatile Niger Delta, in a statement obtained by AFP.

To understand Nigeria’s oil wars, a longer post that strays off topic would be required. We leave that aside for now.

Last week we shared a Pilger video on IMF's role in crises of the developing nations. We have also covered a lot of stories about Microsoft and bankers working in tandem [1, 2]. They must have found commonalities [1, 2] and areas of collaboration. Anyway, in the news we now find that “World Bank and Microsoft to promote development in Africa”:

The World Bank and Microsoft have announced a new partnership that will seek to reinforce social and economic development in Africa by leveraging information and communication technology (ICT). The two institutions today signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the sidelines of the summit meeting of African heads of state on the theme “ICTs in Africa: Challenges and Prospects for Development”.

Another Memorandum of Understanding (“Project Marshall”). What does the World Bank have to do with this and why make a “new partnership” with Microsoft? Is the World Bank becoming a front for a convicted monopoly abuser? The location, Addis Ababa, might have something to do with another item from the news. Microsoft is releasing Windows Vista (not Vista 7) for the Ethiopian public, as reported by AFP some days ago (also here). That was only announced last week:

Addis Ababa, February 6, 2010 (Addis Ababa) An Amharic version of Microsoft Vista software was launched here last Thursday.

Microsoft is trying to pull them away from other software in ‘creative’ ways (GNU/Linux has decent share in Africa). We have mentioned Ethiopia in relation to Gates' crusades with evil Monsanto, as well. What’s Microsoft’s obsession with Africa anyway? Microsoft is dumping software on them while Gates is dumping patents on life upon them (patented seeds and patented drugs that he holds shares in). It creates debt they will need to service later. █

“Bill Gates says banks are dinosaurs, well, some dinosaurs run real fast and bite the hell out of you.”

–Unknown

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02.08.10

IRC: #boycottnovell @ FreeNode: February 8th, 2010

Posted in IRC Logs at 9:49 pm by Roy Schestowitz

Read the log

Enter the IRC channel now

To use your own IRC client, join channel #boycottnovell in FreeNode.

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Links 8/2/2010: Linux 2.6.33 RC7 and Parsix GNU/Linux 3.0r2 Released

Posted in News Roundup at 6:40 pm by Roy Schestowitz

Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day

William Fischer, Harvard law professor and Free Culture Business Theorist 03 (2004)

Digital Tipping Point is a Free software-like project where the raw videos are code. You can assist by participating.

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