Back in August we warned that Microsoft had just made a very suspicious donation at a very strategic time. It only days before the September vote on OOXML. The article which was cited at the time has vanished, but you can find a copy here:

Microsoft to Boost Charity in India

By: AP | Aug 28,2007

Microsoft Corp. will distribute free software to nonprofit groups to boost charity in India, a company official said Monday.

The software donation will be routed through a technology assistance program that India's NASSCOM Foundation is offering in partnership with TechSoup, a San Francisco-based group that partners in charity work with companies like Microsoft, Cisco Systems and Symantec.

NASSCOM Foundation, the philanthropy arm of the trade body of technology companies operating in India, introduced the program Monday - titled BiG Tech.

[,,,]

Nearly 35,000 nonprofit groups in India will be eligible for such software donations.

Charity, eh? To 35,000 nonprofit groups. I was lucky to spot this because I've systematically been watching Microsoft news for the past two years. This one seemingly big event did not make big waves at the time. It went on quietly outside the scope of the press (Associated Press being the exception) -- something which I can quite clearly recall made me even more suspicious back then. I informed some people about this suspicion.

Only yesterday we mentioned the latest fiasco (a new revelation) from India.

You are encouraged to see both incidents and consider some of the later writings that we finally find. Here is one:

Of course, there has to be some trade-offs, because there should never be free lunch, even for the ones who starve: Microsoft, according to this article, has conditioned its help to Indian NGOs to their support of OOXML. What the NGOs had to do was to send letters of support on OOXML to the federal government of India.

How many of these 35,000 nonprofits could potentially overwhelm the national standards body? More information about this latest incident can be found here and hopefully we will find some press coverage soon. The press typically shies away from such controversy. Some of it is literally owned by Bill Gates or Microsoft.

'Charity' in exchange for lock-in and favours? Where else have we seen this before? Start here and follow the citations:

• Bill Gates' Retirement Merely a Political Lock-in Crusade
• Microsoft 'Buys' Dubai Away from GNU/Linux, Calls it “Charity”; Paris Also?
• OOXML Sins and “Charity” Against GNU/Linux
• It's Not Dumping Because They Call it “Charity”
• Boosting Windows Vista Sales Using AIDS
• “Let Them Eat Vista...”
• Mysterious New Moves in the Gates Foundation
• Microsoft Carries on Dumping to Make Its Products a 'Standard'
• The Takeaways from the Giveaways
• Microsoft Must Be Absolutely Terrified

Next time people tell you about all those nice investments donations from Microsoft, ask yourself whether Microsoft gets something in return for those investments donations. ⬆