12.27.09
Alexis de Tocqueville’s Microsoft-Funded Anti-Linux Paper Gets Leaked
“Working behind the scenes to orchestrate “independent” praise of our technology, and damnation of the enemy’s, is a key evangelism function during the Slog. “Independent” analyst’s report should be issued, praising your technology and damning the competitors (or ignoring them). “Independent” consultants should write columns and articles, give conference presentations and moderate stacked panels, all on our behalf (and setting them up as experts in the new technology, available for just $200/hour). “Independent” academic sources should be cultivated and quoted (and research money granted). “Independent” courseware providers should start profiting from their early involvement in our technology. Every possible source of leverage should be sought and turned to our advantage.”
–Microsoft internal document for TEs [PDF]
Summary: The slanderous paper from a so-called ‘Think Tank’ is available for people to assess; Groklaw goes through Microsoft’s dirty laundry
BOYCOTT Novell has mentioned Alexis de Tocqueville on several occasions in recent months because this self-proclaimed “Think Tank” showed up again after spreading Microsoft-sponsored lies about Linux. It sought to encourage and justify lawsuits against Linux, such as the ones we mentioned this morning. One of our readers has just asked: “Seen this? http://www.angelfire.com/linux/toussaint/samizdat/ The PDF of Samizdat by the AdTI, readily available on the internet at last!!”
Apparently that’s new. The paper is now out there for people to view freely. It’s a true scandal. And speaking of scandals, in addition to full Comes v. Microsoft transcripts, Groklaw is now accumulating more data about the exhibits. This would make a nice addition to our existing archive. When handling as many as 9,000 exhibits it is extremely hard to organise them and Groklaw is struggling too.
The material is essentially a dump of all the data that the plaintiffs in Comes v. Microsoft put on their website, including transcripts of the trial and all the exhibits entered into the case. We’re trying to give the data a more meaningful structure so that it will be possible to search by keyword and find particular items in the huge collection.
What’s most important is that the raw data is placed in several mirrors, surely to be preserved for many years to come. This material is extremely damaging to Microsoft because lawyers are using it and partners become aware of Microsoft’s cards. Anyone up for a Microsoft credit card? █
your_friend said,
December 29, 2009 at 10:57 am
The Comes material is damaging because of how utterly depraved Microsoft and damaging is. Competitors are gleefully crushed through bribery, technical sabotage and other illegal monopoly tricks. Worse, every partner is viewed as a competitor. Partners are assisted when promoting Microsoft non standards only to be crushed later. The damage this had done to the industry and state of the art is difficult to measure, though a former Microsoft employee wrote a book about how Microsoft was responsible for world technical retardation. The more people learn the truth of Microsoft operations, the less time they will waste with Microsoft software and business.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
December 29th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
There is a lot more of Comes coming soon. Stay tuned.
The Mad Hatter said,
December 30, 2009 at 10:24 am
Roy,
This is a demo copy, not the complete book, and has been widely available on the net for 5 or 6 years now. The complete book appears to have never been published. It doesn’t show up in any of the standard references, and is impossible to order. I have a suspicion that Ken Brown did not finish it.
Also, ADTI appears to be defunct. There was a post in 2005 about Osama Bin Laden, and then a claim that an ex-ADTI staffer was going to run for President which appears to be from 2007 (the entry is not dated, and the links within it are dead). There has been nothing since then, and if you read the copyright notice the last date is 2005.
Also ADTI’s bulletin board was taken over by link spammers, who overloaded it, and crashed the bulletin board software. I emailed ADTI about this 2-3 years ago, and never got a response, which would tend to confirm that they are out of operation.
Either that, or they’ve gone silent, to avoid criticism.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
December 30th, 2009 at 10:35 am
It is more likely that they have moved on to another shell, like Jonathan Zuck and the other Microsoft cronies moved from ATL to ACT after getting exposed pretty badly.
ACT has been mostly silent for a while (they got exposed too many times), but you should see some parts of the STOA video, notably the one with Commission saying there are no patent trolls in Europe. Zuck is in the video, at the end of the second panel.
Look at SourceWatch to learn how front groups shuffle names, which makes it harder to identify who they really work for.
The Mad Hatter Reply:
December 30th, 2009 at 11:58 am
Fossedal wrote this on Feb. 2009
http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Freedmans/2009/02/13/The-apology-baseball-needs/UPI-84991234570820/
Before that he wrote something in 2007. As I said, they seem to have done a submarine jaunt – and not come back up. It’s the same thing with Brown, and Kilpatrick.
ADTI’s image was definitely tarnished after the messed up so badly.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
December 30th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Microsoft has found some new “Think Tanks” to funnel money into, e.g.:
http://robertogaloppini.net/2009/09/12/open-source-think-tank-europe-2009/