Bonum Certa Men Certa

Former Member of European Parliament Describes Microsoft “Coup in Process” in the European Commission

Summary: Microsoft's entryism in the European Commission is explained by David Hammerstein and other developments in Europe serve as a practical reminder

A couple of years ago, a government delegate compared Microsoft's methods to “Scientology cult”. Anyone who is intimately familiar with Microsoft's role and interference with the US government would be inclined to agree. They use the same methods as Scientology and when someone behaves in a way that threatens Microsoft's bottom line, Microsoft tries to get that someone fired, intimidated, influenced, and even bribed. We have covered many examples that show this. Today's post is not a summary of such examples but a single example which encompasses the European Parliament and Commission. It's about standards and patents, but this enables Microsoft to also pressure for antitrust investigations against IBM and against Google in Europe.



We have already written extensively about what Microsoft did to Neelie Kroes and what happened as a result. She turned against open standards and fell for software patents [1, 2] in a continent where these are illegal. But Kroes is just one example amongst others in the Commission [1, 2]. Microsoft became a political vendor, not a software vendor. At stake: our democracy.

Mr. David Hammerstein, who describes himself as "European Advocate for Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue [and] Spanish Green Member European Parliament 2004-2009" is now saying that "Kroes has been under intense lobbying pressure from Microsoft to get rid of interoperability and open source goals of EU" and also he adds that "Kroes wanted the EU institutions to practice what it preaches and migrate to open standards in its own software. Big backlash."

“DG enterprise and "revolving door" EC officials from Microsoft torpedo Commissioner Kroes open proposals.”
      --David Hammerstein
In what he described as "revolving door" (we heard this term a lot in relation to Monsanto's corruption of governments), Hammerstein lays the blame. "DG enterprise and "revolving door" EC officials from Microsoft torpedo Commissioner Kroes open proposals.

"Coup in process," he writes.

Glyn Moody asked him what can be done and Hammerstein argued: "Some ideas for writing to EU Commissioners to demand open standards in digital agenda."

He points to this new post which begins with: "STOP THE ELIMINATION OF OPEN STANDARDS FROM THE EU DIGITAL AGENDA"

As we have shown before, Microsoft lobbyists are being injected into EU panels and the Commission then harbours them. We covered this in:

  1. European Open Source Software Workgroup a Total Scam: Hijacked and Subverted by Microsoft et al
  2. Microsoft's AstroTurfing, Twitter, Waggener Edstrom, and Jonathan Zuck
  3. Does the European Commission Harbour a Destruction of Free/Open Source Software Workgroup?
  4. The Illusion of Transparency at the European Parliament/Commission (on Microsoft)
  5. 2 Months and No Disclosure from the European Parliament
  6. After 3 Months, Europe Lets Microsoft-Influenced EU Panel be Seen
  7. Formal Complaint Against European Commission for Harbouring Microsoft Lobbyists
  8. 'European' Software Strategy Published, Written by Lobbyists and Multinationals
  9. Microsoft Uses Inside Influence to Grab Control, Redefine “Open Source”


A lot can be learned about entryism by looking at the recent case of Yahoo! The company continues to collapse this week.

Yet Another Yahoo Director To Leave



Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz now has a third board seat she can fill. John Chapple, the president of PE firm Hawkeye Investments (and the former CEO of Nextel) won’t stand for re-election in order “to devote more time to his other business interests.”


This would never have happened if Microsoft hadn't demolished the company from within in order to 'steal' its users and disrupt its agenda which was sometimes beneficial to Free software (BSD and PHP for example).

Speaking of Microsoft entryism in Europe, an Italian activist who insists on using ODF in his country was recently met by resistance and FUD from Microsoft (yes, Microsoft is still fighting against ODF). Now he writes about a similar scandal that discourages use of standards in Italy. He calls it "Cash for software clunkers".

Replacing a software program with its latest version, that is continuing to do the same things as before in a computer window with a different color, would do little to solve the italian ICT crisis. However, thinking about it, maybe there is a way to "dismiss software clunkers" that may bring lots of work to italian programmers and make their customers and all taxpayers save much more money than any other incentive program. What if the Government said "within 2/3 years all Public Administrations will cease to accept, produce, archive or distribute new digital documents in closed formats, since they create so many problems, and to use proprietary digital protocols".

The italian Government already considers closed the formats of Microsoft Office and those of many other programs currently used by italian PAs. Therefore, probably this approach would not be loved by Assinform members like Microsoft: in 2007 Assinform had even stated in a press release that all technical standards on the market should be considered equally valid, without prejudices. This, however, is the same "file format neutrality" that Microsoft promotes without giving enough information.

Imposing certain obligations on the italian PAs is like imposing it on every organization or individual that must communicate with them. Sure, doing so would cause a sort of earthquake, but one that would have, at least in the medium/long term, beneficial consequences both for italian programmers and for the italian economy as a whole. Because the obligation to only use open formats and protocols would not just create a lot of real work. Due to their own nature, these technologies would make it possible for all ICT companies, regardless of their size, to compete on a fair ground, without paying royalties abroad. Open formats and protocols would also allow all public and private users to use the software they really need, not the one that somebody else wants them to buy. I'll welcome a "cash for software clunkers" program, but only if cash will only be given to organizations that will commit to stop production of documents in proprietary formats.


Yesterday we wrote about Microsoft getting heckled in France after entering the “Solution Linux” event. Here is a new photo which a French speaker described as "Microsoft m'a tuer, or Microsoft killing free software with software patents..."

Microsoft booth
Photo by pterjan



Recent Techrights' Posts

More on "Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People"
"pepe the frogs"
Dalai Lama Succession as Evidence That Determined, Motivated People Can Reach Their Nineties
And we need to quit talking about their death all the time
Many Lawyers (for Microsoft) and 1,316 Pages to Pick on a Litigant in Person Who Exposed Serious Microsoft Abuses
Answers must be given
Layoffs and Shutdowns at IBM, Not Just Microsoft
Same as Microsoft
With Workers Back From a Holiday Weekend, Microsoft Layoffs Carry on, More Waves to Come
Now it's Monday and people are bad to work, even some journalists
You Need Not Wave a Rainbow Flag This Month to Basically Oppose Arseholes Looking to Disrupt and Divide the Community
Don't fall for it
What Miguel de Icaza and Microsoft Lunduke Have in Common
Similar aims, different methods
 
Links 08/07/2025: "Cyberattack Deals Blow to Russian Firmware" and "Cash Remains King"
Links for the day
FSF40 T-shirt message
by Alex Oliva
Gemini Links 08/07/2025: Creativity, Gotify with NUT Server, and Sudo Bugs
Links for the day
Links 08/07/2025: Sabotage of Networking Infrastructure, Microsoft XBox Game Pass Deemed “Unsustainable”
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/07/2025: Ancillary Justice and Small Web July
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 07, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 07, 2025
The FSF's (Free Software Foundation, Inc.) 2025 Summer Fundraiser Already Past Halfway Line
This is where GNU/Linux actually started
Mozilla Had No Good Reason to Outsource Firefox Development to Microsoft
What does Mozilla plan to do when GitHub shuts down?
Mozilla Firefox Did Not Die, It Got Killed
To me it'll always look like Mozilla got killed by its sponsors, especially Google, which had a conflict of interest as a sponsor
Dan Neidle, Whom Brett Wilson LLP SLAPPed (on Behalf of Corrupt Rich Tax Evaders), Still Fighting the Good Fight
Neidle fights for the poor people
Wayland Should Start by Dumping Its Very Ugly Logo
Wayland wins the "ugliest logo" award every year
Stop Focusing on Hair Colours, Focus on Corporate Agenda
If someone commits a crime, it does not matter if his or her hair was mostly white or there was no hair or a wig or whatever
Links 07/07/2025: Science, Conflicts, and a Fictional K-pop Group
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/07/2025: Being a Luddite and Announcement of Gotify
Links for the day
Links 07/07/2025: XBox Effectively 'Dead', DMCA Subpoena Versus Registrar
Links for the day
The 'Corporate Neckbeard' is Not the "Good Guy"
Works for IBM
The Nasty Smear (and Stereotype) of "Neckbeard" or "Greybeard" is Ageism
This is the sort of stuff they might try to volley at critics of Wayland
Why Many of Us Use X Server and Will Continue to Use It For Many Years to Come
Don't make this about politics
Microsoft's Nat Friedman Became Unemployed the Same Time the SLAPPs Against Techrights Started Coming From His Friends (Weeks After We Had Exposed Scandals About Him and the Serial Strangler, His Best Friend, Who Got Arrested a Few Days Later)
Nat Friedman is not "Investor, entrepreneur"
Brett Wilson LLP Uses Threats to Demand Changes to Pages or Removal of Pages Without Even Revealing Which Staff Member Does That (Sometimes People From Another Firm!)
This has been in the public for years
Dan Neidle Said "It Really Then Became a Job of Tormenting" Lawyers Like Brett Wilson LLP (Who Threatened Him for Exposing Crimes, Just Like They Threatened My Wife a Few Months Later)
he and his wife decided to take on the evil people and their evil lawyers
Large Language Models (LLMs) Externalise Their Cost to the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
"The forty-sixth Free Software Bulletin is now available online!"
Weeding Out Extremism in Our Community
To me it seems like Microsoft Lunduke is rapidly becoming like a "hate preacher" who operates online, breeding an extremist ideology or trying to soften its image
Censorship Versus Fact-Checking and Quality Control
It's not censorship but a matter of quality control
Reinforcing the Allegations Some More, Bryan Lunduke Digs His Own Grave
In his latest episodes he merely repeats his own lies, which I debunked using evidence right from his own mouth
Global Warming and Free Software as a Force of Mitigation
we'll need to think about Software Freedom, not just brands like "Linux"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 06, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 06, 2025
Gemini Links 07/07/2025: BaseLibre Numerical System and TUI Rant
Links for the day
[Video] "Copyleft Isn't a Bug."
"Copyleft isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. GNU GPL forced the world to treat code like a public good."
Being in Social Control Media Means Exposing Oneself to Heckling
Richard Stallman does not (either himself or directly) post to any social control media
Links 06/07/2025: Airlines Perils, Scams, and Breaches
Links for the day
Two Risks to Companies: The Microsoft Culture and the Microsoft Tools
Novell was killed by a form of "social engineering" by Microsoft
It's Hard to Trust People Who Worked - Not Only Those Who Still Work - at Microsoft
Bryan Lunduke is just what people would call an "arsehole of a person"
For the Second Time, Bryan Lunduke From Microsoft is Siccing Racist Trolls and Vandals at Me
You're only reinforcing the point we made yesterday
Links 06/07/2025: End to End Encryption at Risk, Reuters Twitter ("X") Account Withheld in India
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/07/2025: Tinylog and Certification Rotation
Links for the day
Links 06/07/2025: Climate Change and "The Right to Criticise"
Links for the day
PCLinuxOS Sites Coming Back, Gradually
let's just be patient
Social Control Media, Even If Based on Free Software, Still Has Many Problems
a distraction from what actually mattered and still matters
IBM is Not Your Master
IBM makes friends with people who exclude the majority of the population: women
Help Fund the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
If you have some dollars to spare, go support the FSF
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 05, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 05, 2025
A Short History of Attacks on Techrights (and Boycott Novell Before That)
good opportunity to tell again the story of several (not all) attempts to silence us
The Mainstream Media Took 4 Days to Realise Microsoft Shut Down Its Operations in Pakistan and Fired Everybody
We estimate that Microsoft has had about 29,000 layoffs since January
Leadership in Free Software
Don't let IBM lead. It's a terrible flag bearer.