Microsoft is a Gift That Keeps Giving (Future Stories to Techrights)
Microsoft keeps trying to silence us, but this has a negative effect on Microsoft. In effect, what censorship attempts typically lead to is the "Streisand Effect". We have some of the best lawyers protecting our rights and insistence on our legal rights we shall always adhere to. I'm a principled person and a stubborn reporter. I always will be.
Microsoft has been trying to silence me using dirty tricks for nearly 20 years. At risk of repeating myself too often, the first prominent attempt goes back to my Ph.D. days when they tried to put me offline (literally; no Net connection!). Later they hijacked my name and posted in my name that I had "cut my penis for Linux". That was around 2004 or 2005. I went to a local media lawyer who had already successfully sued Microsoft. At the end nobody believed the forgery (who would go publicly on the Web and USENET to say that he "cut my penis for Linux"?). It was a dead-end smear and an attempt to silence me, which of course failed.
Back then I already knew and could directly witness what the Microsoft cult was like. That didn't deter me; instead it emboldened me to look deeper into the issues and spend the next two decades writing more of the same. Similarly, in 2015 when the EPO hired several law firms in London to intimidate me (after I had published leaks that revealed EPO corruption) it only encouraged me to spend the next decade writing about 4,000 more blogs posts/articles about the EPO. Never underestimate elements of "revenge" (or perhaps the better two-word term is "justice-seeking").
It's typically the "better option" to let people report facts "in peace". Trying to interfere with or impede factual reporting will never end well. Yet worse, it'll end up amplifying whatever it is they try to suppress/censor/hide.
It is for certain that Techrights will report on Microsoft and EPO crimes for many years to come. Later this week we have our 18th anniversary party. I'm in relatively excellent health, so nothing can stop this. Death threats or tacit allusions to acid attacks only increase the prospect of imminent arrests (of the Microsofters). This is the UK, not Belarus, and the police here takes seriously reports of threats to reporters' lives. For further context, I had cops come to my home 4 times this year to collect evidence of abuses against my family and I. The matter is already escalated to higher levels. And nevertheless, we remain highly productive and in good/high spirits. These attacks are proportional to our positive impact. So we know we're on the right track. We've never been more optimistic about the future of this site and our IRC community is growing as more people come to our defence and our support. Microsofters attacking us merely serves to vindicate us. It's counterproductive to Microsoft. █