06.07.13
Posted in Antitrust, Australia, Bill Gates, Deception at 10:11 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
National press in Australia (corporate news) complicit in Gates’ agenda
Summary: How a “successful” (as in profitable) criminal bought the press, rebuilt his public image, and is now on a crusade to make a lot more money while the press misinforms the public, saying he distributes (gives away) his ill-gotten money
THE Gates Foundation has been discussed in our IRC channels quite a lot as of late. Australian members of this site are unhappy to see their so-called elected leaders hanging out with a famous criminal like it’s some kind of a badge of honour. Gates is buying the press (literally) in Australia and it is a recipe for disaster. It is not about helping journalists but about enlisting them for PR. Journalists these days are not talking about the business crimes of billionaires like the Rockefellers* and they are only ever mentioning Gates in a positive connotation because their editors or publishers know the implicit rule that money comes from PR, not criticism. Watch Associated Press whitewashing Rockefeller while lumping in Gates and the Bill Gates-funded [1, 2] BBC doing the same. Some criminals go to jail; but if they are big enough they get a bailout (taxpayers’ money) and get characterised as heroes and business champions.
“Some criminals go to jail; but if they are big enough they get a bailout (taxpayers’ money) and get characterised as heroes and business champions.”The Gates-funded BBC uses promotional language like “Rockefeller (and most other private foundations) is dwarfed in size by the Gates Foundation, which has assets of more than $36bn.”
It almost correctly notes that “The Gates Foundation is also Rockefeller’s partner in the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, and Ms Rodin says it is a “terrific” partner.”
It’s not a a green revolution, it’s “Green Revolution” (capitalised). It is exactly the opposite of green. It’s greenwashing of seed monopoly by Monsanto et al. Gates is an investor; he’s in it for money. It’s about gaining wealth through monopoly on the food supply — a subject we covered here dozens of times before.
The Gates-funded BBC doesn’t say that this is a for-profit GMO alliance. The BBC has been publishing many pro-GMO/Monsanto pieces (or ignoring criticism) since Gates bribed it (to a certain degree the same has been true about The Guardian since Gates bribed it). We gave several examples of this. Appalling? Yes, but nonetheless very true. We are not unique in the making of this observation. This is actually a growing trend in alternative media and to a growing extent in some mainstream media too (they have to keep up with common knowledge and neglect PR).
“It’s not a a green revolution, it’s “Green Revolution” (capitalised). It is exactly the opposite of green.”To quote a noteworthy old article which has Gates and Rockefeller mentioned in tandem in relation to their pro-Monsanto agenda in Africa and the rest of world (monopoly on food), they sure have a “doomsday seed vault”. They seem to realise the problem with GMO, but GMO is about profit. Bill Gates just getting richer, he is not losing wealth. He is disseminating lies in the media to make it seem as though he is a giver, not a taker. Radio Australia says in this summary that “Bill Gates announced he would donate almost all of his fortune to charitable causes” (he is only getting richer a decade after saying this, so it’s more like expanding his fortune to widen the lead as the world’s richest man while also trying to portray himself as world’s most generous man).
We found this very gross article, too. The old headline was “Bill Gates: Richest Man and Also one of the Most Generous – ABC News” (this headline is not visible anymore, but we grabbed it from cache).
“It’s not hard to grasp the facts, it’s just hard to get the truth/facts past conservative editors and publishers of corporate media (where profit, i.e. advertising, comes before accuracy).”it is troubling enough seeing one engaging in crime; what’s even more blood pressure-raising is seeing criminals who do this injustice (with direct harm to those around them) literally buying themselves hero status, getting all the credit for the work of volunteers whom they looted, destroyed, demonised, and so forth.
Well, the editor changed the headline, so it is hard to show the nerve of this branch of corporate media. ABS is corporate press, very extremely so. The Australian press has been doing PR for Gates amidst a visit. Never mind if Gates and Microsoft are both tax evaders (too rich to pay tax), the Australian press will reverse the facts. Yes, tax evader Bill Gates keeps saying the rich should pay more tax and the Australian media prints that, completely without challenge (just like in the US press of Gates' Australian friend and partner Rupert Murdoch last month [1, 2]), not noting that this foundation is an apparatus of tax exemptions, like many other such foundations.
For those with a strong stomach, here is some more gross PR from the corporate news sites. Well, it’s merely a lobbying trip to Gates in Australia and it’s paying off. The agenda and business model is usually relaying tax money (by lobbying politicians) to Gates’ private investments — companies whose manufacturing costs less than one percent of the retail price, so publicly-stated ‘donation’ numbers are grossly overstated and someone — some shareholders (wink-wink) — pockets the massive margins. Here is a lobbying pitch from the man who got his wealth using illegal business tactics like sabotage designed to derail law-abiding competitors. Go figure why nobody in the corporate press dares to point this out. It’s not hard to grasp the facts, it’s just hard to get the truth/facts past conservative editors and publishers of corporate media (where profit, i.e. advertising, comes before accuracy). █
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* There are many books and documentaries about it, spanning approximately one century, but it is definitely not worth delving into at Techrights as it’s not technology related.
“Don’t encourage new, cross-platform Java classes, especially don’t help get great Win 32 implementations written/deployed. [...] Do encourage fragmentation of the Java classlib space.”
–Ben Slivka, Microsoft
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03.24.13
Posted in Australia, Europe, Free/Libre Software, Microsoft at 9:36 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: A case of business abuse in the former British colony made relevant now that the UK ponders dumping Microsoft
In the UK, FOSS proponents celebrate a government interim decision to favour FOSS wherever possible. Microsoft likes to bribe, so we must keep a close eye on what’s happening. Meanwhile, says this report from the British press, Microsoft is under fire in Australia, a debt-saddled nation, for price gouging in government:
Adobe and Microsoft’s Australia’s managing directors have both struggled to answer hours of tough questions from Australia’s Parliamentary inquiry into IT pricing.
Apple’s Tony King was the first witness to front members of parliament for ninety minutes today of MPs today, and acquitted himself well.
Every morning on the radio I hear about our government’s plan to cut ‘spendings’ on benefits for the poor. Rarely is it suggested that Microsoft contracts get dropped and Britain made dependent only on itself for software. █
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03.21.13
Posted in Australia, Microsoft at 5:08 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Telstra, the largest ISP in Australia, gives away customers’ communications for US surveillance through Microsoft
Summary: Another worrying step from a Microsoft-occupied telecom in Australia and a reminder of the implications
Telstra got filled with Microsoft moles and now we witness yet more of the outcomes, some of which we covered here before:
“It looks like Australia’s largest ISP is working closely with Microsoft and will soon be letting them handle customers emails using Outlook.com. The setup guide is available here. An interesting move, considering the National Broadband Network rollout is coming. What’s in the future for other ISPs and how they handle email in Australia? Are the days of ISPs providing in-house email servers coming to an end?”
This is not acceptable, but more and more companies seem to be outsourcing their E-mail to so-called ‘clouds’. Those who outsource to ISPs too are going to come under the same dangerous umbrella, albeit indirectly.
BT, the ISP I unfortunately rely on the most, uses Yahoo which Microsoft abducted as well. I use it neither for incoming nor outgoing mail traffic, except as an ISP which uses DPI to infiltrate packets content (I use encryption too). The unfortunate thing is, when sending mail to people who are in those so-called ‘clouds’, GMail included, privacy on neither side (sender and receiver) can be assured. Telstra’s move ensures that yet more mail will inevitably be piped through the US surveillance system, almost definitely to be retained indefinitely by the NSA.
So even Australians are now tracked by their E-mails more conveniently. This also applies to Skype after the Microsoft takeover.
It should not be hard for large Australian companies to operate a bunch of servers with Asterisk and FOSS-based E-mail services. To ask some other companies to run and host those services is worse than lazy; it is irresponsible and dangerous.
Those who live in Australia can hopefully speak to Telstra about this issue; if it is too late to revoke the decision, then it is time to speak with one’s wallet. █
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02.25.13
Posted in Australia, Europe, Law, Patents at 9:10 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Australia and New Zealand are having software patents phased in by multinational corporations in the same way as in Europe
THE PRESIDENT of the FFII has resumed keeping track of the Unified Patent Court, which would affect us here in the UK, amongst other countries. This disturbing new post says that “Vince Cable signs Unified Patent Court agreement in Brussels: patent attorneys call for a proper economic impact survey before the agreement is ratified”.
Gérald Sédrati-Dinet, a longtime opponent of the Unified Patent Court, wrote that “Only Gandalf can protect Europe from the Unitary Patent”. He says that “with #UnitaryPatent EU has waived even more prowers to #EPO,” which is something that Glyn Moody finds “really depressing” and “fortunately,” he says, “I’m still convinced that #UnitaryPatent will never ever enter into force…”
Sédrati-Dinet worried when “@montebourg ha[d] signed agreement on a #patent court exposing French firms to the threats of #patentTrolls” and Mark Summerfield said that “Sir Robin calls claims that European #patent would save money ‘lies’, based on assumption that you would patent across all Europe.”
André Rebentisch, also from the FFII, wrote: “Berlin Airport everywhere: Business Europe says let’s adopt #Unipat Court in neglect of technical difficulties http://www.europolitics.info/business-competitiveness/patent-if-the-system-is-not-operational-it-won-t-be-used-art348322-45.html …”
Separately he wrote: “Yesterday speech of Commissioner Michel Barnier on unitary patent http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-13-132_en.htm?locale=en …” (Barnier is one of the principal architects and boosters of this whole mess).
Here is part of Sédrati-Dinet’s detailed analysis of this subject:
Now that, despite all legal, political and economic issues, the European Parliament has approved the regulation on the unitary patent, just as anticipated, it is time to move away from the legislative battle. The unitary patent has still a long way to go before becoming applicable. It is likely that it will be nothing more than a stillborn child. Meanwhile, the threat is hovering over European innovation and growth. It is time now to see whether and how Gandalf’s magical powers can overcome dark forces of Mordor.
New Zealand has been following the same trajectory as the EU because the “forces of Mordor,” as Sédrati-Dinet calls them (referring perhaps to multinationals), sought to make the 'as such" trick a matter of law and then, through trade agreements (so-called uniformity and unification) they try to export/import primarily US-based software patents. It is the same in Australia, which has gone along a similar route (being somewhat of a US client state, as the Julian Assange story helped show).
Here is a noteworthy new article about what happens in New Zealand:
Recently I wrote about looming changes to New Zealand’s patent laws that could have a dramatic and lasting impact on the future shape of New Zealand’s tech sector.
The hope held out by many was that software would be excluded from being covered by patents, however it now appears that the government is likely to change patent legislation so that software can be patented.
Even though the Commerce Select Committee and numerous industry experts have all recommended that software be excluded from patentability, amendments made to the bill after pressure was placed on the government could be sufficiently vague that software could end up being patented.
Yes, just like here in Europe. Be prepared for NZ and Australia to sign some more ‘free’ ‘trade’ agreements to help pave the way to a global patent system where software is patentable (as covered here many times before). That is, unless we rise up and stop this global, as in worldwide, madness… █
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Posted in Australia, Microsoft at 9:44 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Abuse of powers
Summary: Xbox-related overseas raid (over a hoax) involved the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, which was collaborating with Washington Police at the behest of Microsoft
NO THEORY here but a real conspiracy that reminds us of Microsoft’s backdoors in Windows, which US secret agencies love to exploit. Amid hype in the corporate press over China ‘hacking’ one must remember that it’s the US which attacks other countries with cyber weapons like Stuxnet and President Obama recently made that legal (legalising it after the illegal act), as we covered in our daily links some weeks ago. Techrights is not a political site, so we won’t delve into the politics behind it, but let us point out that Microsoft collusion with the police, as pointed out the other day, had involved the FBI as it turns out:
A Perth teenager — who has gained popularity in cyberspace under the name SuperDaE — has had his home raided and possessions seized by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and WA Police as part of an international corporate espionage probe.
The incestuous relationship between Microsoft and the secret services ought to make every user of Microsoft software — especially governments — seriously worried. Right now in Iceland there are serious debates over the FBI’s abduction of a Wikileaks employee, which the FBI tried to use to frame Julian Assange. Iceland kicked those FBI agents (who had come in a private plane) out of the country for not respecting national sovereignty, but this is far from a resolved case. What we have here is a blurring gap between legal and illegal as we descend into moral corruption and rule of power, not law.
Last week we shared some links about the revelation that Aaron Swartz was flagged by the FBI. So much for fighting terrorism, eh? More like defence of corporations. In Occupy, as a leak reveals, protesters were labeled “low-level terrorists” and every other week we read about another so-called “terror plot” which actually involved undercover FBI agents providing tools to a stung perpetrator in a group/circle FBI had infiltrated (they call it “Sting Operation” and it’s actually throughcrime, i.e. criminalisation of political views). █
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07.28.12
Posted in Australia, GNU/Linux, Kernel, Microsoft, Virtualisation at 5:40 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Removing Microsoft’s “boobs” from Linux would lead to technical complications
Microsoft’s decision to put “boobs” [1, 2, 3] in the Linux kernel (in the code, not the comments) is not so easy to fix by mere revision because some older builds now technically rely on the “boobs” being inside the code:
Microsoft Azure users may have their service disrupted as the software giant tries to rectify an embarrassing line of code, which roughly translates as “Big Boobs.”
The 0x0B16B00B5 string of code has been causing blushes for Microsoft since its presence was highlighted by coder Paolo Bonzini. B16B00B5 is leet speak for ‘Big Boobs’.
However, it was Matthew Garrett, who works for open source provider Red Hat, who claimed the code could cause problems for Microsoft’s public cloud platform.
Great. So Microsoft made Linux sexism-reliant. Thanks, chauvinist Microsoft [1, 2, 3, 4], and thank you, Novell, for letting Microsoft do this. What a disgrace.
Speaking of virtualisation, notice how the Australian government helps subsidise Microsoft. As Pogson puts it:
ATO has tax-filing software that only runs on that other OS. MacOS and GNU/Linux users are out of luck but the ATO will allow them to deduct from taxes the cost of running that other OS just to run the software, a pure subsidy of M$.
STUPID! STUPID! STUPID! Australians and their government do not owe M$ a living. M$ should work for a living and Australian taxes should not go directly into M$’s coffers. Make your software a web-application that any browser on any OS can access. Get your act together, ATO.
He is right, the “$” aside. This just helps show how out of touch the world has become; it aids criminals rather than their victims, taking up public money to make up for Microsoft’s loss [1, 2, 3]. Bailout? Too big to fail? Sociopaths get all the entitlements? █
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07.15.12
Posted in Australia, Patents at 4:03 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Under the bridge
Summary: A debate about an Australian body which the public funds (through tax) and does nothing but taxation, passing this tax to the public
CSIRO, the taxpayers-funded patent troll from Australia, is being debated in the Australian press, having its reputation laundered. To quote: “A growing number of technology patent wars around the world has highlighted the rise of the “patent troll”: rights holders whose claim to an invention does more harm than good.
“The concept of a patent troll is particularly relevant in the US, where relatively unknown entities that may not make any products lay claim to a core process employed by a commercially active software maker.”
–ITNews (Australia)“Non-competing entities that litigate over software patents are often accused of imposing a tax on innovation by blocking others from developing products despite having no intention of doing so themselves.
“The concept of a patent troll is particularly relevant in the US, where relatively unknown entities that may not make any products lay claim to a core process employed by a commercially active software maker.”
By this definition, given what the government-backed CSIRO has done, it is a troll*. Should it be deprived of public funds now? We think it should. NPEs are parasitic and contribute nothing to the economy; this is based on hard and consistent evidence. █
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* The “relatively unknown entities” part is not obligatory as some trolls are very massive and well known, e.g. Intellectual Ventures.
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07.03.12
Posted in America, Asia, Australia, Patents at 9:43 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Imperialism through law
Summary: India, Australia and New Zealand lobbied by some corporations-backed US politicians to approve US patent monopolies
CABLES from Cablegate have shown us how diplomatic pressure is put on nations in order for them to embrace a US-style rule of law. Recently, the US tried doing this in Australia and/or New Zealand, bringing software patents there, amongst other things. The following article may be mixing copyrights with patents, but it does show how US pressure is applied to india’s law making:
- Patent proceedings: The United States displayed concerns over inefficient streamlining of patent opposition proceedings and ineffective system for protecting against unfair commercial use, as well as unauthorized disclosure of test or other data generated. It has urged India to take additional steps to improve coordination with enforcement officials of certain state governments within India, address its judicial inefficiencies and to strengthen criminal enforcement efforts by imposing deterrent level sentences and giving IPR prosecutions greater priority. The report added that the United States will monitor developments concerning compulsory licensing of patents in India following the broad interpretation of Indian law in a recent decision by the Controller General of Patents, while also bearing in mind the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health found in the Intellectual Property and Health Policy section of this Report.
Over in New Zealand this is happening as well and we wrote about this at the time. So did others:
In its latest 420-page National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers, the USTR expresses concerns at Australia’s National Broadband Network, and government concerns at offshore storage of personal data; while New Zealand is in the crosshairs for legislation currently before parliament that would ban software patents.
They use blackmail to impose software patentability. Here is criticism of the TPP, a vehicle for wiping many existing laws in one feel swoop:
This week, San Diego is hosting the latest round of talks over the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Australia and New Zealand are at loggerheads over this secretive new trade treaty spanning the Pacific Rim. The rift between the neighbours over the Trans-Pacific Partnership was revealed after the investment chapter of the agreement was leaked to the public.
Australian Trade Minister Craig Emerson has argued that the Trans-Pacific Partnership is the first step toward a regional free trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific. But Australia, it appears, has refused to submit to the “investor-state” tribunal system in the negotiations over the agreement.
A while ago there was this Australian forum on software patents and Australia’s IDG sites asked if software patents harm innovation:
Do software patents stifle innovation?
Software patents are stifling innovation and should not be applied to computational information processing, according to a Victorian software developer.
At least they quote those whose opinion matters the most.
The lawyers got their way in Israel based on this piece from Australia:
The patentability of software and computer implemented technologies has been a veritable hotspot in patent law over recent years in many countries. The Israeli Patent Office has now, after lengthy deliberations, settled on a formal policy….
Given US influence on the nation, this is not shocking.
Over in Poland, which we mentioned before in relation to software patents, Glyn Moody claims there is something rotten going on:
Earlier this year, Poland played a crucial role in igniting street protests that pretty much stopped ACTA in its tracks. That’s not the first time it has had a major impact on European tech policy. Half a decade earlier, it derailed a proposed EU software patent directive, which had sought to make software patentable in Europe — something that Article 52 of the European Patent Convention had appeared to rule out. That led to a later vote in the European Parliament where software patents were decisively rejected.
The polish presidency did a lot of harm when it comes to software patentability [1, 2, 3, 4]. At the end of the day, it’s clear that European citizens have nothing to gain from such policies; it’s for multinational corporations, many of which are headquartered in the US. If only there was as much popular resistance to software patents as there it to ACTA… █
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