03.31.08
Microsoft’s Letters from the ‘Dead’ Tactics Return (Yet Again)
Just when you thought you had seen enough…
In recent months, Microsoft seems to have engaged in a ‘distributed denial of service attack’ when it comes to corruption. Those striving to keep track of Microsoft’s dirty tricks, let alone have the company prosecuted and punished, are up for a real task.
“Microsoft reportedly did this in order to push OOXML right into the fast track — a fiasco which many mind have already left neglected in the past.”The following report could easily translate into more labour (even burden) for the EU Commission to handle. It comes at a time when the digital complaint box has been filled — so to speak — topping its rim. That’s what we mean by “distributed denial of service attack”. When it rains, it pours.
Today’s story comes from Singapore where Microsoft has been caught using an old class of dirty tricks. In the past (just under a year ago) we saw the company applying this tactic to ISO directly. We repeated this story on the first day of the BRM in Geneva. Microsoft reportedly did this in order to push OOXML right into the fast track — a fiasco which many mind have already left neglected in the past.
Several weeks ago we saw similar tricks getting used in India. As we wrote at the time, Microsoft may have bribed charities in exchange for OOXML lobbying and pressure. It’s appalling, and it’s difficult to deny.
Now it’s Singapore. Shocking. To conclude with just the closing sentence:
And the most hilarious letter of support comes from a Singaporean secondary girl’s school, Crescent Girl’s School. That’s right folks, that’s how desperate they were to get their “Approve” vote, they actually got a school to submit a letter of support…
To make this long story short (it is backed by compelling and undeniable evidence), Microsoft is one again flooding national bodies with template-imposed letters. It is using its many proxies, some of which have no relevance at all to this debate.
Back in 2001, Microsoft even used as proxies a variety of deceased people, whose bogus ‘letters of support’ written were written by a firm Microsoft had hired. Add such practices to academic kickbacks and AstroTurfing and you will soon realised what level of corruption it emitted from this company, which never ended misbehaviour.
It’s another dark day for human decency, courtesy of Microsoft.
Amid several new complaints from the American Antitrust Institute, US Antitrust officials have made a promise to step up.
Bush administration officials vowed Friday to more strictly enforce antitrust law in their remaining months in office, while their European counterparts struck a more conciliatory tone.
In remarks to a lawyers’ group, the goal seemed to combat the perception among many antitrust experts that the European Union enforces antitrust law with a vengeance in contrast to a too-lax approach in the U.S.
Thomas Barnett, the Justice Department’s top antitrust official, said the agency will pursue “aggressive but appropriate merger enforcement.” The department faced criticism earlier this week for clearing — without conditions — Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.’s $5 billion (€3.2 billion) purchase of its only rival, XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc.
Will they be up to the task for a change? Words are not enough and signs of history say that citizens should demand deeds, not words. Words are cheap in an administration where politicians are controlled by corporations, who fund them directly. The infamous “letters from the dead” debacle (see above) is a good example of this because the letters were addressed at those responsible for antitrust action. █
