Bonum Certa Men Certa

Challenging Patent Law and Companies That Are Not Obeying Common Law

Lady justice



Summary: A word about the focus in Techrights and why it makes sense at this stage and era of patent wars, UEFI, bundling, etc.

A site like Techrights occasionally needs to revisit and explain its goals. A lot of people correctly point out that we're targeting particular issues more than others. It is a conscious decision.



Microsoft's history when it comes to antitrust action has been thoroughly documented. It can be researched with the help of many documents or pages including federal Web sites, journals, newspapers, legal filings, blogs, news sites, and hardcover books. No single site or piece of literature can really claim credit for having done a grand exposé of the company's actions, but the efforts of many help piece together a cohesive story of systematically-abusive people, some of whom have grown beyond Microsoft and are now a threat to health, nutrition, education, etc.

Techrights has limited its scope of coverage to more properly address systemic issues which enable Microsoft (among others) to extort, to cheat, and generally to distort the market to the point where honest people simply cannot compete. There are many good people out there who lost income or lost their jobs because of Microsoft's abuses against the Web (as Web developers), abuses against other companies (diving them out of business by cheating), its shoddy software (e.g. security issues, bugs) and expensive licences that drain companies' budgets and render people redundant.

"If Microsoft does not obey the law, then it is a special problem."While it is true that there are many malicious companies out there except Microsoft, this simply does not excuse Microsoft or in any way justifies its bad behaviour. United we need to stand, insisting as ever before that the rule of law is respected also by the super-rich and never subverted to accommodate or legalise their criminal activities.

The many writings about Microsoft are fueled not by hatred but by aspiration to have a civil society that fosters honest developers and thus maximises benefit to technology users. Stallman has pointed out in this site that Apple became a greater threat than Microsoft, which I still doubt is true, depending on what it is a threat to. Therefore, despite the fact that I de-emphasised Microsoft in 2010-11 when I started working two jobs simultaneously and hence lacked time, Microsoft will remain a point of focus. Novell is pretty much gone, but the patent extortion carries on and we must fight against software patents to shield dominance of Linux-based platforms, especially in portable devices.

With the exception of daily links and IRC logs, further posts will focus more on facilitators of software patents and those who exploit them. Brands will change, platforms will rise and fall over the years, but one thing which remains quite persistent in relative terms is the rule of law and those applying it, or not applying it. If Microsoft does not obey the law, then it is a special problem.

Recent Techrights' Posts

When Abusive Law Firms (Working for Microsofters Against Us) Assert That Someone Writing in Social Media About Himself is Confidential Information
There was no reason to throw "GDPR" into 2 SLAPPs; they know it, but the goal was to increase the cost of a Defence and lessen the incentive to challenge the SLAPPs
Throwing Money at Lawyers Can't Stop Us (It Never Did)
Even just trying to censor things can result in the opposite of the desired outcome
BetaNews Has More or Less Died After Experiments With LLM Slop, Is Linuxsecurity Next?
It doesn't seem like BetaNews knows what it's doing, let alone what it talks about
 
Gemini Links 15/06/2025: "AI Fatigue and Crappiness"
Links for the day
Microsoft Attack Dogs Against Watchdogs and Guard Dogs in Software
Last year Microsofters hired attack dogs or "guns for hire"
Slop Cannot Replace Domain Expertise
All this "AI" hype (it's not even intelligence, it's all a misnomer, as many of us have insisted all along) will fizzle and be written off as a failed experiment
IBM's Fresh 'PIPs' (Action Before Layoffs)
At times like these, even once-reputable employers resort to PIPs and other procedures/tricks for denial of workers' rights
Microsoft is a Problem Not Just for Denmark
Every country should consider what Denmark is doing, why Denmark is doing it, and then do the same
The Slopfarms' Self Detonation
If more sites like BetaNews go under, then maybe we can still salvage some of the Web
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 14, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, June 14, 2025
Links 14/06/2025: FDA Changes Priorities, Cassette Data Storage From The 1970s
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/06/2025: Steam Next Fest and Thoughts on Gemini
Links for the day
Site/Datacentre Maintenance Next Week
speed things up
Bulgaria: GNU/Linux Near 10%
The Bulgarian market seems to be changing
I Never Spoke to BetaNews. But BetaNews Wants to Ensure I Never Will, Either.
Sometimes just the reluctance to talk about it can say a great deal
Online Search or Large Search Engines Aren't Working Anymore
business models that directly compete with interests of Web users
Holidays and Breaks
I've hardly taken any long breaks since I got married
Danish OpenDocument Freedom
"year of Linux"
Links 14/06/2025: Wars and L.A. Distortion Effect
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/06/2025: Historic Ada Design and GeminiSpace.Club to Expire
Links for the day
Links 14/06/2025: India Plane Crash and Middle-Eastern War
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 13, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, June 13, 2025
Gemini Links 13/06/2025: (Not)virtues and Project Yeet Broadband
Links for the day
Links 13/06/2025: Journalists Targeted by Cracking, China-Japan and Israel-Iran Tensions Grow
Links for the day
Links 13/06/2025: US Reduces Nonessential Staff at Baghdad Embassy Ahead of Strikes in Iran, Invasion of California Debated
Links for the day
X11 is Free Software
Whether you agree (e.g. on politics) with the person/s forking it doesn't matter
The More Time Passes, the Better Our Advice on Social Control Media Seems
At the end of the day, any platform you do not control yourself is working for someone else
Twitter (X) is Dying, Now It's Just Like a Mafia-Type Operation of the Man Who Does Nazi Salutes in Public
a form of extortion
UK High Court Blasts Brett Wilson LLP for Misusing "GDPR" After Failed Efforts to Censor Critics Using 'Libel' Claims
No wonder this firm is rapidly shrinking
Recent Blunders in Microsoft GitHub (e.g. Slop-Generated Bug Reports or GPL Violations 'as a Service') Taking Their Toll?
Put bluntly, if you still use Microsoft GitHub, then you're slave to Microsoft
American Imperialism and Microsoft Plagiarism
Techrights will therefore do what Microsoft does not want it to do: it'll write even more about Microsoft
When They Have Nothing Left to Help Advance Abusive Litigation for Microsoft People... Other Than Throwing ~500 Pages of Someone Else's Work Into a PDF
Microsoft is having a very tough year
The Price of Exposing Corruption in Poland (and Elsewhere)
It's easier to participate in corruption than to merely do the right thing and oppose it
Slopwatch and Yet More Holes in 'Secure Boot' (as Usual!), Promoted Inside Linux by the Man We Are Suing
Today's Slopwatch will be short
Gemini Links 13/06/2025: People You've Left Behind, Life Update and OS Changes
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 12, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, June 12, 2025