01.26.11
Michael McLoughlin, Kevin McBride, and Florian Müller
Common fiends, common goals
Summary: Some loose connection claimed to have been found between SCO’s boosters, Microsoft’s staff, and Microsoft Florian
Microsoft cannot compete against Linux, so it is trying to destroy Linux instead. Microsoft Florian helps ‘pull a SCO’ using lies right now [1, 2, 3] and somebody helps show a connection between him, Microsoft, and Darl McBride’s lawyer brother, who some months ago also helped ‘pull a SCO’ by making false claims [1, 2]. Anyway, here is the comment of relevance:
Mueller: what is your relationship with M. McLoughlin
Direct question for F. Mueller, will you describe your relationship with MSFT’s M. McLoughlin:
I did a screen cap in Feb. 2010 of twitter friends of Kevin McBride (the lawyer brother of SCO’s Darl McBride).
He had 2 friends: you (Florian Mueller) and Microsoft’s McLoughlin.
McLoughlin’s bio is:
Michael McLoughlin. McLoughlin is
* Director, Enterprise Markets, Office of Strategic Relations at Microsoft
* Board Member atOpen Computing Alliance
It is curious to say the least. Pamela Jones also lays out a theory in Groklaw:
So is it not at least possible that a Microsoft
operative deliberately tried to poison the well?If I were Florian, I’d put out an over the top
article about it, but being me, thank heaven,
I’ll just note that we should be alert for such
tricks.Incidentally, I see Florian has posted a request
for info from the community on any infringement
they notice in their projects, promising them
anonymity. First of all, NOBODY from the
community will respond to his request, I’m sure.
I suspect he knows that too, just from reading the
comments on Slashdot and here. So, I have a
suspicion that this is just a cover for future
“revelations” by Florian, and he will refuse
to identify by source with the excuse that he is
protecting them. But in reality, would that not
be a perfect cover to feed the media insider info
actually handed him by proprietary parties who
wish to kill Android?Just asking. I noticed that he claimed it was
some guy on Twitter who told him about the German
filing showing who make up CPTN. But the person
disappeared that very day from Twitter. But on
the internet, you leave breadcrumbs. So I followed
them. The person who allegedly handed him the
information had an online persona as a guy who
wrote about only one topic online that I could
find, a particular football team in Florida.Now, you tell me. How likely is it that this is
the guy who found an esoteric legal
filing in Germany and then told Florian about it?I find that story impossible to accept, particularly
because I tried to track the guy in real space, and
it was impossible.So here’s my working theory: someone thought it
would be a great idea, since parties to lawsuits
can’t normally safely discuss litigation in public,
to have a “son of Groklaw” — an imitation of what
we did, but for the proprietary side, and just as
those dudes assumed, incorrectly, that Groklaw was
paid to be a public mouthpiece, they hired Florian
to pretend to be just some blogger who just
happens to be interested in
these topics.It’s a funny theory, if true. And if true, it will
eventually become known as to whether or not it’s
true.But Florian, as we see in this recent event, is in
over his head. Plus, as the song says, ain’t nothing
like the real thing. And he doesn’t have the benefit of
a community of coders to help him, as we do. Even
the media won’t find his oeuvre helpful over time,
if any of them still believe a word he says, because
he will make mistakes over and over. He won’t be
able to help it. And his malice shines through
everything he writes. He clearly is no expert on US
law, for starters. And if he suddenly seems to
understand it, we’ll all know he has a lawyer
advising him behind the scenes. This mistake he
made will have lasting effects, in other words.
The community had him pegged
already. Now the media
is learning. He should, in my view, tell who he
is working for, because he’s ruining his reputation
this way. And it can only get worse. Look at what
happened to Enderle and MOG and Lyons.
Watch the followups. █
