"It is not the policy of the EPO to require or examine source codes […]. Moreover, given the length and complexity of source code listings, which can often stretch to hundreds of pages, it would be quite impossible to examine them." —European Patent Office brochure

Summary: How Microsoft lobbies to change public policies such that they discriminate, intentionally, against software freedom

THE BRAND "Microsoft" may only be a scapegoat; it's not the brand which corrupts systems, it is the highly-influential sociopaths who accommodate the corporation who view themselves as having infinite entitlement, to the point where they are allowed to bribe whoever necessary to change the laws. One self-serving law-changer is Bill Gates, who shelters himself behind a foundation which spends about $1,000,000 per day just buying the press (they call it "advocacy"). Other major lobbyists work behind the scenes and many of these activities are undisclosed.

The situation in New Zealand as far as software patenting goes is not encouraging and Daniel Reurich explains how Microsoft uses legal instruments (as mentioned yesterday) to make things worse for GNU/Linux and software freedom. It's like barbwiring the market to protect Microsoft's status quo, finding new ways to label the competition "illegal". As Reurich put it (NZICT is a Microsoft-backed lobby, it's nothing to do with "NZ" interests):

Sounds to me like Microsoft is resurrecting it's FUD campaign. Of course Chapman Tripp have in the past provided council for Microsoft in NZ and given that Microsoft used it's power over NZICT to try and slip in a secret Supplementary Order Paper, I'd figure this is Microsofts next step.

It seems that Microsoft are franticly purchase the law that allows them to maintain their monopoly on computer systems right across the world.

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In Europe Microsoft have been putting significant resources in backing the setting up of the European Patent Office.

Europe's similarity to New Zealand in that regard is a subject we addressed before (the likes of Microsoft use "device" as a syntactic trick). Microsoft's Marshall Phelps gloated about the EPO not being able to "distinguish between hardware and software so the patents get issued anyway." That's just what Microsoft wanted and later on it got its way with FAT patents in Europe. As part of the thread above we have:

They are never going to stop. They have a lot of money, they have a lot of influence, they have a lot of friends in very high places all over the world. It's going to take an eternal vigilance to keep them at bay.

Microsoft is a very major player among the software patents lobby. Then we have the patent lawyers, who are desperately defending the acts of patent trolls, too (who are themselves part of the litigation pipeline that feeds lawyers). It's all just a big pile of propaganda. Even Gates himself once admitted that “[i]f people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today’s ideas were invented, and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today."

Microsoft has no qualm about lying if it helps pass laws that forbid software freedom and make Microsoft patent boosters like Nathan Myhrvold and Bill Gates a lot richer (they both accrue power and money using patents these days, including their patents on nuclear technology that they jointly lobby for). ⬆