09.25.07

OOXML in East Europe — More Nations, Same Dirty Tricks (Updated)

Posted in Australia, Europe, Interoperability, ISO, Microsoft, Open XML, OpenDocument, OpenOffice at 2:19 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

How curious. Everywhere you look, it seems as though voting on OOXML involves one form of corruption or another, so the ISO’s credibility is in serious trouble. Last week, for example, we found out that Russia voted blindly on OOXML. This week we find that a supposedly-open voting process was somewhat of an exclusive club in other nations that voted “Yes”.

Microsoft’s secretive standards orgs in Former Yugoslavia

[...]

Croatian laws keep its national body’s votes secret, so the only way for the Croatian public to find out how the process went would be if a board member illegally leaked information out of CSI. This is, of course, unlikely to happen. And the Serbian national standardization body is not officially formed, so those two votes were easy for Microsoft, and probably not only ones around the globe.

Microsoft has admitted resorting to such things simply because of money. This is unacceptable and we shall continue to explore this issue and document the truth. It is frustrating to see that people move on and forget that Microsoft bribed, deceived, lied, pulled people out of their jobs, and even bullied diplomats.

In more positive news, it turns out that Australia has turned to open source and open standards (ODF) for digital preservation.

Xena is free and open source software developed by the National Archives of Australia to aid in the long term preservation of digital records. Xena is an acronym meaning ‘Xml Electronic Normalising for Archives’.

This is a smart move for Australia to make. No country should have its assets tied to a single vendor. In the UK, on the contrast, National Archives is headed by a Microsoft employee, so national assets will be held hostage in the hands of Microsoft, with the proprietary, Windows-only, patent-encumbered, buggy, incomplete, intra-incompatible (between versions of Office) OOXML. This is the result of a conflict of interest and it’s truly a crime giving our precious information away to a monopoly with such a shady history.

The future is open standards, which OOXML is not.

Also of interest:

Rob Weir covered some highlights from the OOo conference (published yesterday)
The Second “O” in OOXML Stands for “Oligarchy”, Not “Open”

Update: remember Rob Weir’s essay about critical OOXML bugs that can put life at risk? Have a look at this newly-discovered bug in OOXML (the proprietary format of Excel 2007). It’s receiving a lot of publicity at the moment and it’ll be discussed in days to come.

Share this post: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Permalink Mail Send this to a friend

If you liked this post, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or join us now at the IRC channels.

Pages that cross-reference this one

What Else is New

Links 18/9/2018: Qt 5.12 Alpha , MAAS 2.5.0 Beta, PostgreSQL CoC

Links for the day
Today's European Patent Office (EPO) Works for Large, Foreign Pharmaceutical Companies in Pursuit of Patents on Nature, Life, and Essential/Basic Drugs

The never-ending insanity which is patents on DNA/genome/genetics and all sorts of basic things that are put together like a recipe in a restaurant; patents are no longer covering actual machinery that accomplishes unique tasks in complicated ways, typically assembled from scratch by humans; some supposed 'inventions' are merely born into existence by the natural splitting of organisms or conception (e.g. pregnancy)
The EPO Has Quit Pretending That It Cares About Patent Quality, All It Cares About is Quantity of Lawsuits

A new interview with Roberta Romano-Götsch, as well as the EPO's promotion of software patents alongside CIPA (Team UPC), is an indication that the EPO has ceased caring about quality and hardly even pretends to care anymore
Qualcomm's Escalating Patent Wars Have Already Caused Massive Buybacks (Loss of Reserves) and Loss of Massive Clients

Qualcomm's multi-continental patent battles are an effort to 'shock and awe' everyone into its protection racket; but the unintended effect seems to be a move further and further away from 'Qualcomm territories'
Links 17/9/2018: Torvalds Takes a Break, SQLite 3.25.0 Released

Links for the day
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) Helps Prevent Frivolous Software Patent Lawsuits

PTAB with its quality-improving inter partes reviews (IPRs) is enraging patent maximalists; but by looking to work around it or weaken it they will simply reduce the confidence associated with US patents
Abstract Patents (Things One Can Do With Pen and Paper, Sometimes an Abacus) Are a Waste of Money as Courts Disregard Them

A quick roundup of patents and lawsuits at the heart of which there's little or no substance; 35 U.S.C. § 101 renders these moot
“Blockchain” Hype and “FinTech”-Like Buzzwords Usher in Software Patents Everywhere, Even Where Such Patents Are Obviously Bunk

Not only the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) embraces the "blockchain" hype; business methods and algorithms are being granted patent 'protection' (exclusivity) which would likely be disputed by the courts (if that ever reaches the courts)
Qualcomm's Patent Aggression Threatens Rationality of Patent Scope in Europe and Elsewhere

Qualcomm's dependence on patent taxes (so-called 'royalties' associated with physical devices which it doesn't even make) highlights the dangers now known; the patent thicket has grown too "thick"
Months After Oil States the Patent Maximalists Are Still Desperate to Crush PTAB in the Courts, Not Just in Congress and the Office

Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) inter partes reviews (IPRs) improve patent quality and are therefore a threat to those who profit from spurious feuding and litigation; they try anything they can to turn things around
IAM, Watchtroll and the EPO Still Spread the Mentality of Patent Maximalism

The misguided idea that the objective (overall) should be to grant as many monopolies as possible (to spur a lot of litigation) isn't being challenged in echo chamber 'events', set up and sponsored by think tanks and pressure groups of the litigation 'industry'
Watchtroll and Other Proponents of Patent Trolls Are Trying to Change the Law Outside the Courts in Order to Bypass Patent Justice

35 U.S.C. § 101 (Section 101) voids almost every software patent — a reality that even the most zealous patent professionals have come to grips with and their way of tackling this ‘problem’ is legislative, albeit nowhere near successful (so far)
Links 16/9/2018: Windows Plays 'Nice' Again, Elisa Music Player 0.3 Beta and Latte Dock 0.8.1

Links for the day
Slamming Courts and Judges Won't Help the Patent Maximalists; It Can Only Make Things Worse

Acorda Therapeutics sees its stock price dropping 25% after finding out that its patent portfolio isn't solid, as affirmed by the Federal Circuitn(CAFC); the only way out of this mess is a pursuit of a vastly improved patent quality, thorough patent examination which then offers legal certainty
Patent Trolls Are Still Active and Microsoft is Closely Connected to Many of Them

A roundup of patent trolls' actions in the United States; Microsoft is connected to a notably high number of these
Advancements in Automobile Technology Won't be Possible With Patent Maximalism

Advancements in the development of vehicles are being discouraged by a thicket of patents as dumb (and likely invalid) as claims on algorithms and mere shapes
Battistelli “Has Deeply Hurt the Whole Patent Profession, Examiners as Well as Agents” and Also the Image of France

A French perspective regarding Battistelli's reign at the EPO, which has not really ended but manifests itself or 'metastasises' through colleagues of Battistelli (whom he chose) and another French President (whom he also chose)
António Campinos Needs to Listen to Doctors Without Borders (MSF) et al to Salvage What's Left of Public Consent for the EPO

Groups including Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Médecins du Monde (MdM) have attempted to explain to the EPO, with notoriously French-dominated leadership, that it’s a mistake to work for Gilead at the expense of the public; but António Campinos is just another patent maximalist
The Max Planck Institute's Determination on UPC's (Unitary Patent) Demise is Only “Controversial” in the Eyes of Rabid Members of Team UPC

Bristows keeps lying like Battistelli; that it calls a new paper "controversial" without providing any evidence of a controversy says a lot about Bristows LLP, both as a firm and the individuals who make up the firm (they would not be honest with their clients, either)
Links 15/9/2018: Wine 3.16, Overwatch's GNU/Linux (Wine) 'Ban', New Fedora 28 Build, and Fedora 29 Beta Delay

Links for the day
Max Planck Institute Pours More Water on the Dying Unitary Patent (UPC)

The Max Planck Institute gives another sobering reality check for Team UPC to chew on; there's still no sign of any progress whatsoever for the UPC because even Team UPC appears to have given up and moved on
EPO Seals Many Death Sentences With Acceptance of EP 2604620

Very disappointing news as EP 2604620 withstands scrutiny, assuring that a lot of poor people will not receive much-needed, life-saving treatments
Links 13/9/2018: Compiz Comeback, 'Life is Strange: Before the Storm'

Links for the day
Now We Have Patents on Rooms. Yes, Rooms!

The shallow level of what nowadays constitutes "innovation" and merits getting a patent for a couple of decades
EPO Granted a Controversial European Patent (Under Battistelli) Which May Literally Kill a Lot of People

The EPO (together with CIPA) keeps promoting software patents; patents that are being granted by the EPO literally put lives at risk and have probably already cost a lot of lives
Links 13/9/2018: Parrot 4.2.2, Sailfish OS Nurmonjoki, Eelo Beta

Links for the day
Patents on Life at the EPO Are a Symptom of Declining Patent Quality

When even life and natural phenomena are deemed worthy of a private monopoly it seems clear that the sole goal has become patenting rather than advancement of science and technology; media that's controlled by the patent 'industry', however, fails to acknowledge this and plays along with privateers of nature
Defending the World's Most Notorious Patent Trolls in an Effort to Smear the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) is an Utterly Poor Strategy

The 'case' for patent maximalism is very weak; those who spent years if not decades promoting patent maximalism have resorted to attacks on judges, to defense of trolls like Intellectual Ventures, defense of patent scams, and ridiculous attempts to call victims of patent trolls "trolls"
The Belated Demise of Propaganda Sites of the Litigation 'Industry'

Sites that promote the interests of Big Litigation (patent trolls, patent law firms etc.) are ebbing away; in the process they still mothball the facts and push propaganda instead
Links 11/9/2018: OpenSSL 1.1.1, Alpine Linux 3.8.1, Copyright Fight in EU

Links for the day