09.09.11

Super Lobbyist Bill Gates Tells the Entire World What Patents to License

Posted in Bill Gates at 2:55 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: The vaccination advocacy from Gates is being criticised for being short-sighted and selfish/self-serving

ONE need not shout and curse to be called a bully. Many manipulative people can wear a sweater and speak calmly, still achieving pretty much the same goals and coercing others to follow their own selfish agenda. Those who do not agree will be left to rot on the wayside. It is easier to achieve this while hiding behind an entity proclaiming to be an NGO or a charity, whose main role is actually investment in stocks at Wall Street.

Unfortunately, money means almost everything in research because if one cannot obtain sponsorship/grants, then his/her line of research is being suppressed. The same goes for advertising in trade journals and old press.

“Unfortunately, money means almost everything in research because if one cannot obtain sponsorship/grants, then his/her line of research is being suppressed.”So today we consider this report from an independent blogger who used to be a journalist (and thus coerced by Gates et al. to sing their praises). He writes about Gates pressuring all states all around the world to do as he wishes regarding patents, having brought people from patent giants that sell those patent-’protected’ drugs (taxpayers pay for those drugs, not Gates, who is there to claim credit). For the uninitiated, Gates liaised with some pharmaceutical giants whose heads joined his foundation. He then put his investment money in those companies and funded some universities to produce the propaganda they require (assigned to Gates’ ‘charity’ rather than the big pharmaceutical companies that profit along with Gates but arouse too much suspicion and draw flak). To quote the report: ‘”That was a sobering realization for me,” said Bill Gates, speaking today to the World Health Assembly and representatives of 193 member states. [...] All 193 member states, you must make vaccines a central focus of your health systems, to ensure that all your children have access to existing vaccines now—and to new ones as they become available.’

Yes, Gates and the companies he invests his money in are pushing aside other people with other ideas just because these competing ‘idealists’ don’t have illegally-earned fortunes like Gates. As pointed out by Gates Keepers:

Mr Kenny points out that most of the public health benefits and deaths averted from immunisation have already taken place. As vaccine preventable diseases continue to decrease, the Gates Foundation will step up to take the credit and ride to glory on the downslope.

It is rather troubling that this whole reputation laundering operation truly works because it increases Gates’ wealth and status at the same time. Here is some new Smithsonian propaganda (where the former head of the foundation now works). It’s all just part of the attempt to project/portray the world’s top villain as some kind of hero. Will the press ever catch up and manage to teach the public about those tricks? Or can Bill Gates’ PR budget always be one step ahead? This PR budget is still standing at about 400 million dollars per year (not charity, just PR or “advocacy” as Gates prefers to call it). People’s health is at stake and as we’ll show in the next post, children’s (mis)education too. █

Related posts:

• The Poor People of Redmond, Rich Uncle Bill, and the Pharmaceutical Cartel
• The Pharmaceutical Cartel
• Bill Gates and the Business of Disease
• Bill Gates Uses Malaria to Attack GNU/Linux
• Gates Foundation Monoculture Accused of Harming World Health Organization (WHO)
• Gates Foundation’s Head of Global Health Gags Academic Researchers With Threats, Forbes Magazine Calls Gates Vaccination “Utterly Repellent”

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Cablegate: Importing the USPTO Into Europe, Using the ‘EU Patent’

Posted in Europe, Patents at 2:37 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Very detailed cable about Europe presents a picture of the threat of the EU Patent, among many other things

THE founder of the FSF was chided by some European patent lawyers after he had repeated what the FFII tells us all the time (since 2008 or thereabouts). The EU Patent or whatever the politicians choose to call it (the name keeps changing, which makes it a moving target) would help bring USPTO patents — software patents include — into Europe.

The following Cablegate cable from 2009 says:

“¶39. Patents: It is not yet possible to file for a single EU-wide patent that would be administered and enforced in all EU member states. The most effective way to secure a patent across a range of EU national markets is to use the services of the European Patent Office (EPO). EPO offers a one-stop-shop that enables right holders to obtain various national patents using a single application. However, these national patents have to be validated, maintained and litigated separately in each Member State. Although the European Commission proposed a regulation in 2000 (COM 412) on the institutional framework regarding the establishment of a community patent, the Council has repeatedly failed to reach agreement on the dossier. The main outstanding issues relate to the translation of patent claims and litigation options. The Union has so far also failed to set up a streamlined system for the resolution of patent disputes. The Council rejected a Commission request for a mandate to negotiate an EU patent litigation agreement in December 2006.”

In other words, it is about litigation and they want to make litigation easier, with increased damages too. How does that help Europeans? Who does that make richer? On it goes:

“¶40. In March 2007, the Commission released a Communication (COM 2007/165) restating the Commission position that it would not abandon the Community patent and European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA) proposals. In September, 2008, the EPO and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) launched the Patent Prosecution Highway, a joint trial initiative that leverages fast-track patent examination procedures already available in both offices to allow applicants to obtain corresponding patents faster and more efficiently. This will permit each office to exploit the work previously done by the other office and reduce duplication. In addition, the two offices, along with the patent offices of Japan, Korea, and China announced a joint agreement (IP5) in November to move forward on work sharing and to undertake a number of projects to harmonize the environment for work sharing and eliminate unnecessary duplication of work.”

This means that this whole ‘globalisation’ of patent monopolies systems would result in broadening the reach of patents and increasing their number, too. As we saw in the so-called 'trade agreement' with Korea , this also means spreading software patents to the whole world. Below we put the cable in its raw form.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Apple Adopts ‘Lunatic Dictator’ Approach

Posted in Apple, GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Patents at 2:26 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Apple Cult engages in battle

Credit: www.kremlin.ru

Summary: Apple tries to reign the industry by intimidation and retaliation tactics which are intended to scare anyone who behaves ‘out of line’, for instance by competing or gaining intelligence on Apple

“Apple Employees Accompany Police In Search For Missing Prototype,” noted Kari Laine on Thursday, the 8^th of September. He linked to an article from Murdoch’s press (WSJ).

Quoting another version of the story (from Ars Technica): “Those same Apple investigators—one of which was later identified as retired San Jose Police sergeant Anthony Colon—offered money for the device and even made veiled threats about contacting the Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS) when the search turned up nothing. “One of the officers is like, ‘Is everyone in this house an American citizen?’ They said we were all going to get into trouble,’” Calderón said.”

“Those same Apple investigators [...] made veiled threats about contacting the Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS) when the search turned up nothing.”
      –Ars TechnicaAmazing.

In a later post from Laine he uses the title “Is Apple engaging in innovation by intimidation?” This one is even more shocking. Quoting Beta News: “So the next day, my father went to see him; only this time with Luca Brasi — and within an hour, he signed a release, for a certified check for $1,000…Luca Brasi held a gun to his head and my father assured him that either his brains, or his signature, would be on the contract”

Nice people, eh? Christine Hall already makes fun of Apple for it.

“Apple innovates in Japan” was the third post from Laine that night (yesterday night). It is a sarcastic title because it’s actually about Apple trying to block sales of the main rival in Japan. We are talking about the Linux-powered Android, which Apple has engaged in embargo war against [1, 2]. Apple did not innovate this strategy as Microsoft did it first, multiple times too [1, 2, 3].

“Luca Brasi held a gun to his head and my father assured him that either his brains, or his signature, would be on the contract”
      –Beta NewsIt is getting hard to sincerely stick up to Apple and it also looks like the company’s new CEO, who started threatening rivals even years ago [1, 2], put Apple on the road to becoming the next Microsoft in the bad sense of the analogy (market abuses and aggression). We’ve already seen some calls for a CEO swap, even this morning (coming from Mac users).

Yesterday we wrote about Apple's other attacks on Android and also two of Microsoft's. Those two companies now work in tandem against Linux and Linux sites take notice, not just general news sites. Quoting the latter: “Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) has already inked lucrative licensing details with General Dynamics Corp. (GD) (owners of Itronix, a maker of rugged tablets) [source]; Velocity Micro, Inc. [source]; Onkyo Corp. [source] (JSD:6628); and HTC Corp. (SEO:066570) [source]. It’s pressuring Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (SEO:005930) into a similar licensing deal. Reportedly it wants up to $15 per device sold.

“So what do all these companies have in common? They all use Google Inc.’s (GOOG) Android operating system and all are afraid that Microsoft may make good on its threat to sue them if they don’t pay licensing fees.”

Microsoft has already sued several times and it typically turns out to involve something like FAT or an application-specific functionality, which elimination of software patents ought to make unpatentable. Let’s try to eliminate the problem at the root, which is corruptible officials that let laws be subverted for lobbyists’ clients. In the coming days we’ll share some leaked cables about patents. █

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Prior Art-based and Abolishment-based Methods of Stopping Software Patents

Posted in America, Patents at 2:04 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

United around common goals

Summary: Another look at two complementary approaches that help defend Free software, one being deterrence based on the latter being reform-driven

THE patents landscape is being filled up with all sorts of extortion rackets that operate rather quietly. We previously mentioned several of these, including RPX which according to LWN the OIN keeps and eye on. To quote a very detailed article which is finally accessible to non-subscribers:

There are several defensive patent pools that have spent “billions to acquire patents”. These include RPX, which has 100 members, and AlliedSecurityTrust (AST), which has 22 members, as well as OIN itself. OIN is a “very peculiar company” in that has six members but is “tasked with protecting the community”. OIN and its members know that the community is “where new innovation is coming from”, Bergelt said, and those innovations can be used to build billion dollar companies.

[...]

There is work to be done on mobilizing the open source software community to help fight these patents, he said. There is a “tremendous amount of prior art” that has not been identified, so OIN and others have been working on “structures” where developers can document their ideas in ways that can be used by the patent office. One of those is the “defensive publication”, which is like a “patent without claims”. OIN has spent “tens of thousands of dollars” to try to educate developers on how to defensively publish their ideas. In addition, there are opportunities for the community to identify existing prior art that can limit the claims or possibly invalidate patents that are in the examination process.

We generally choose appeasement with the OIN, despite some disagreements. United we stand stronger and we also have been engaging in correspondence with Groklaw. Tens of thousands of dollars could also be spent trying to eliminate software patents altogether, so the above approach leaves us somewhat sceptical. This is the goal of Techrights and several other sites of its kind, including Groklaw which has this new article on why software is reducible to mathematics. Quoting the introduction:

This article is a follow up on my previous article 1+1 (pat. pending)—Mathematics, Software and Free Speech. My original intent was to write a shorter and simpler explanation of the software is mathematics argument which would be accessible to laymen. This proved to be a too ambitious goal. This is about mathematics, software, computers and patents. This topic is inherently technical. I settled on the next best thing. I tried to assume as little knowledge of mathematics, computers and software as possible and still explain things properly. There are professions like journalists in the trade press and lawyers practicing in software related fields of the law whose members know more about computing than the ordinary folks but don’t have the programming skills of Linus Torvalds. These people are the target audience.

The argument is based on the explanation of how software, hardware and data combine to implement functionality. When we have a complete picture of how functionality happens we can see clearly the parts played by the mathematical concepts of computation and algorithm. Once we have this knowledge it becomes clear in which sense and why software is mathematics.

The editor of Groklaw advocates two paths towards elimination of software patents, the latter of which is more conformist and to a certain extent aligns with the OIN’s work. Perhaps a little bit of both would be best, at least for the time being as software patents exist in the US.

By the way, do not pay too much attention to this new parody of a patent ‘reform’ which has just been passed:

The Senate gave final approval to the first major overhaul of the nation’s patent law in more than a half century Thursday, sending the America Invents Act to President Barack Obama for his signature

America Invents Act… like Patriot Act, it’s just a buzzword. We should all still demand a patent reform… a real patent reform. █

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Cablegate Plan

Posted in Site News at 1:51 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Our plan for the coming week and why we’ve covered a lot of Microsoft over the past week

FOR THOSE who wonder why we mostly focus on Microsoft, this is a preference of convenience, as taking one topic at the time enables a more organised and consistent coverage, addressing one topic at the time, however thoroughly. We refer to it as “Cablegate” and not “Wikileaks” because Wikileaks is the key publisher; it is not, however, the actual source of the information. Cablegate is treated by us not as borderline illegal but as a matter of public interest; it’s taxpayers who paid for all those cables to be written and affect their lives profoundly. They have the right to know what those whom they fund are doing behind closed doors. There are many mirrors out there with exactly the same material; we’re not quite the exception, but we focus on subjects that we understand better and can help our future posts about new events.

As always, those who wish to help us research cables are advised to join us at the IRC channels, which also support anonymity. Journalists tend to prefer to mail us with enquiries, but then they miss the collective of brains we have here in this Web site. Thanks to some increased publicity we’ve received more than our average quarter of a million hits per day (excepting Varnish) and the site has new subscribers. Public interest keeps us strong and motivated. █

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Links 9/9/2011: Bodhi Linux 1.2.0, VortexBox 1.10

Posted in News Roundup at 8:03 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

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IRC Proceedings: September 8th, 2011

Posted in IRC Logs at 7:40 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Enter the IRC channels now

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Cablegate: Microsoft Asks US Government to Help Derail Vietnam’s Migration to GNU/Linux, Wants to Treat Vietnamese Like ‘Pirates’ Instead

Posted in America, Asia, Cablegate, GNU/Linux, Microsoft at 4:20 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Another example of an attack on Vietnam’s desire for digital independence, where the attacker is both federal and corporate (a hybrid)

Vietnam made some headlines in recent years as it said it would migrate to Free software in government (GVN). As we have shown in recent days, Microsoft has used some nefarious means to stifle Vietnam’s moves towards such digital independence and the American government was helping Microsoft do that. Now we are seeing another Cablegate cable where “Microsoft representatives also highlighted their concerns about recent GVN comments that it plans to switch to open source software (like Linux) to “fix” its IPR problems. While acknowledging that the decision on what type of software the GVN wants to use is up to the Government, Microsoft asked us to help convey the message that the GVN should not switch to open source for the “wrong reasons.” Switching to open source does not insulate the GVN from the responsibility of ensuring that all software used by the GVN is legitimately licensed, Microsoft asserted. Econoffs noted they had already raised this issue with the GVN.”

Why are state department officials lobbying for Microsoft like this? Do they not respect Vietnam’s right to independence?

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 000966 

SIPDIS 

SENSITIVE 

STATE FOR EB/IPC:DRBEAN, EAP/BCLTV AND EB/ODC
STATE ALSO PASS USTR BURCKY/ALVAREZ AND BRYAN
STATE ALSO PASS USPTO FOR URBAN
STATE ALSO PASS LIBRARY OF CONGRESS FOR TEPP
USDOC FOR LASHLEY AND 4431/MAC/AP/OKSA/HPPHO
USDOC ALSO FOR ITA/TD/OTEA/JJANICKE AND ITA/TD/SIF/CMUIR 

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KIPR, ETRD, ECON, VN, IPROP
SUBJECT: VIETNAM: MICROSOFT FOCUSED ON IPR 

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED PROTECT ACCORDINGLY 

REF:  HCMC 367 

1. (SBU) Summary.  While disappointed in the lack of
progress in improving IPR protection in Vietnam, Microsoft
remains committed to engaging the GVN on this critical
issue.  Microsoft and Business Software Alliance (BSA)
representatives are looking at ways to encourage the GVN to
adopt a legitimate software initiative and asked the USG to
encourage the Prime Minister to send a letter to all GVN
agencies ordering them to use only legitimate software.  End
summary. 

2.  (SBU) On March 30, Economic/C and Econoff met with
Singapore and Bangkok-based representatives of Microsoft and
the Business Software Alliance (BSA) to discuss Intellectual
Property Rights issues in Vietnam.  Microsoft employees were
both regional senior managers and corporate government
affairs representatives.  Throughout the meeting it was
clear that while Microsoft is frustrated with the lack of
progress on IPR issues in Vietnam, it is committed to
finding opportunities to engage with the GVN and to work out
a strategy to develop positive momentum for change.
Microsoft representatives indicated they would continue to
engage senior level officials, including at the DPM level,
to prioritize IPR issues. 

3. (U) Econoffs explained that the Ambassador and Econoffs
frequently highlight to GVN officials at every level two key
points on the importance of IPR to Vietnam: 

-- The GVN has prioritized attracting foreign direct
investment (FDI) to Vietnam.  Strong IPR is a critical
factor attracting FDI, not only in the IT sector, but also
across the board.  Econoffs suggested that Microsoft work
with other international software and hardware companies
(including its competitors) to deliver a unified message to
the GVN that IT companies will not look seriously at Vietnam
until there is better IP protection.  Microsoft noted that
the Business Software Alliance (BSA) included a number of
both hardware and software firms and was be a good vehicle
for making such an approach. 

-- Strong IPR enforcement is critical to the development of
domestic industries that depend on IP - most notably the IT
sector.  Econoffs recommended Vietnam work with and provide
assistance to the Vietnam Software Association (VINASA) to
help this organization develop itself as a stronger advocate
for the domestic software industry and improve VINASA's
ability to influence government policy vis--vis IPR. 

4. (SBU) Microsoft representatives noted that in their
experience several things have to happen before a country is
capable of effective IPR enforcement.  First, Vietnam needs
a strong legal framework that includes significant penalties
for enforcement.  Additionally high-level engagement on the
issue is necessary.  Microsoft noted that in some countries,
a letter from the Prime Minister to all government agencies
(on IP protection, including the use of legitimate software)
has been the catalyst for change.  And, of course, there is
the need for effective enforcement.  Finally, Microsoft
noted that development of the private sector is also
important - a domestic constituent base interested in IP
enforcement is useful in engaging government action. 

5. (SBU) Microsoft wants to encourage the GVN to ensure that
all Government offices use only legitimate software.
However, cost is clearly a concern for the GVN as well as an
excuse for the negligible progress the GVN has made in this
regard.  Microsoft is looking into the possibility of IFI
funding (ADB, WB etc) or concessionary commercial financing
for a GVN strategy to implement a legitimate software
initiative for all or some GVN national government entities.
Microsoft representatives asked that in our engagement with
the GVN - perhaps at the next BTA Joint Committee meeting in
May - we suggest that a positive and tangible step the GVN
could take on IPR would be to have the Prime Minister send a
letter to all government agencies instructing them to use
only legitimate software. 

6. (SBU) Microsoft representatives also highlighted their
concerns about recent GVN comments that it plans to switch
to open source software (like Linux) to "fix" its IPR
problems.  While acknowledging that the decision on what
type of software the GVN wants to use is up to the
Government, Microsoft asked us to help convey the message
that the GVN should not switch to open source for the "wrong
reasons."  Switching to open source does not insulate the
GVN from the responsibility of ensuring that all software
used by the GVN is legitimately licensed, Microsoft
asserted.  Econoffs noted they had already raised this issue
with the GVN. 

7. Comment:  Many of the factors Microsoft mentions as
essential for strong IPR protection are beginning to come
together in Vietnam.  While the private sector still faces
significant disadvantages vis-a-vis the state-owned sector,
greater attention is being given to the importance of
fostering the private sector development each day.  New,
albeit fledgling, business and music associations are
cropping up with IPR enforcement at the top of their list of
priorities.  In addition, donors (including the USAID-funded
Support for Trade AcceleRation (STAR) Project) and the GVN
are dedicating significant resources toward revising IPR-
related legislation, including Vietnam's Civil Code, Civil
Procedure Code and regulations on remedies.  However, the
GVN is not "leading by example" on the issue of copyright
piracy.  Government agencies of all shapes and sizes are
loaded down with pirated software.  An effort by the GVN to
move toward comprehensive use of legitimate software - even
if it is done ministry by ministry - would be a significant
step forward and we should do everything we can to encourage
and support such an effort.
BURGHARDT 

These cables are crucial bits of evidence that show how Microsoft uses politics to get deals rather than rely on technical merit. There is also a subversion of laws in other countries (US-style laws imposed). At a later date we are going to organise all this evidence in our wiki. █

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