Bonum Certa Men Certa

Why Law Firms and Courts in Particular Should Dump Microsoft

posted by Roy Schestowitz on May 03, 2025

Giving a notoriously corrupt and chronically law-breaking company control over one's systems and data is a recipe for disaster. Many lawyers agree, but they talk the talk, not walk the walk. The same applies to distinguished or high-level courts.

Did you try owning your own systems? No, it's too hard

For the first time in my life I (and also my wife) filed lawsuits [1, 2] against someone who had long abused us. So I got further insight into how the British legal system works. I also spoke to many law firms and communicated with courts.

Over time I came to realise that Microsoft, an American firm with really bad reputation, has a technical grip on systems and data of police departments [1, 2, 3, 4], law firms, and courtrooms. I last revisited the issue 2 years ago in relation to NDAs.

I worry that law firms and courts are giving Microsoft too much control. We'll cover that in depth - maybe even a mini-series - in the future (now isn't the right time, but that time will come). Aside from the fact that Microsoft is increasingly intrusive, e.g. taking screenshots all the time while falsely advertising that Orwellian surveillance as "AI". This is a serious problem for law firms and courts, not to mention various types of businesses, police departments and so on. We already know, based on verified reports and unequivocal admissions from Microsoft (e.g. [1, 2]) that Microsoft grossly misuses its technical ability - even if it's illegal - to read people's E-mails and other communications (e.g. audio, video) for commercial reasons - to the point of snooping on journalists and probably lawyers and judges too.

In the lawsuits we filed Microsoft is a party of interest. It's closely involved in this case (the employer of the second SLAPP's Claimant at the time of the Publications), so there's clearly a problem*. It would be absurd to let the employer of one party be the host of any of this communication, more so at the court level. Imagine Microsoft inviting judges over to Microsoft's headquarters to issue a judgement on Microsoft (at the Microsoft campus). This is what is sometimes happening here, except digitally (digital realm, not physical realm).

Microsoft is quite unique in this regard; a company like Boeing does not have control over data and systems of British police, courts, and law firms. It should not be OK for Microsoft to be the exception.

So in general, what we have is high-quality, slam-dunk evidence of abuse/misuse of process by foreign people working for a foreign company looking to hide its criminal activities from the general public. And it would be wrong for the process to be deal with by this company.

In fact, given various provisions and promises associated with legal protocols, it probably should not even be legal to use Microsoft.

An associate explains: "The other thing which is important but universally ignored would be the details in the Microsoft licensing which not even law firms read, whether they have an "IT department" or not."

Printed out, argues this associate, all the relevant licenses and EULAs are about 2cm of A4 paper for your standard, fully stocked, fully updated Windows desktop. It's worse if any Microsoft services or servers are involved.

"The tldr there," the associate explains, "is that the license grants (or did when I last read through such a stack) the right for Microsoft to read and change files on the computer remotely, not limited to system files**."

That then has severe repercussions for attorney-client privilege in the case of law firms and courts - a subset of privacy.

We hope that, over time, no cases in any courts will be accessible to Microsoft. More so in cases that implicate Microsoft itself.

__________

* Microsoft must not have access to any of the communications at any point. This is very clearly a case of abusive litigation by two American people, professionally and personally connected, filing two connected frivolous cases using the same lawyer and same barrister for strategic reasons. There's an impending complaint with the SRA over this abusive litigation; several law firms deem this abusive, and that's based on the legal/technical term, moreover based on their studying of the filings (press NGOs referred these to them). It must be noted that one common denominator here is Microsoft-affiliated people trying to suppress, remove, or censor information that is embarrassing to Microsoft. It would be harder to recover the cost from them who engage in abusive litigation, as they hide in their dad's home or some cabin in a forest. They have a "limited liability" "gun for hire" with hardly any money left in the bank, so holding the lawyers financially accountable for abuse would be hard too.

** Cambridge English: PUT/STICK THAT IN YOUR PIPE AND SMOKE IT! Merriam-Webster: PUT/STICK THAT IN YOUR PIPE AND SMOKE IT

stick that in your pipe and smoke it!

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

Representing and Speaking for Animals
If I ever choose to take this matter to tribunal with animals-centric NGOs on my side, it'll get some press coverage for sure
 
Government Sites Should Run Free Software
Not proprietary bloatware with buzzwords
LLM Slopfarms Take No Breaks
When people run sites by bots they don't need to worry about "breaks"
GNOME Having a Meltdown Again
Thanks and farewell to Steven Deobald
Gemini Links 30/08/2025: Low Tech and Hunchbin 1.0.6
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 29, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, August 29, 2025
Financiers and Sponsors of the Slop Hype (Pyramid Scheme Waiting to End, Bubble That Will Inevitably Implode)
It's also burning the planet
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Google Helps Ponzi Schemes and Slopfarms in Google News
Slopfarms are a real pain
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Retiring at 62 and URL Filtering HTTP(S) Proxy on Qubes OS
Links for the day
Links 29/08/2025: Lisa Cook Sues Convicted Felon and Backdoor Mandate in UK Resisted
Links for the day
Links 29/08/2025: Arti 1.5.0, War on Public Health (CDC), and Slop 'Bros' Made to Pay for Their Mass Plagiarism
Links for the day
No, 4Chan is Not Fighting for You by Lawyering Up Against Ofcom (UK)
Don't mistake proto-fascists for people who "fight for you". They don't.
Downlplaying the Impact of "UEFI 9/11" is a Losing Strategy
we won't publish much whilst on holiday
In Many Places in the World Vista 11 "Market Share" is Going Down, Not Up
In some countries Windows is already down to third place or lower
More Microsoft-Connected Layoffs, at Least Third Time This Month! (Also Another Death on Campus)
Microsoft as a "gaming" company is where studios, projects, games, and even developers come to die
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Slop Images in VentureBeat, Linux Foundation Spam Made With LLM Slop and Slop Images
The only relief or upside - if any exists - is that the pace of slop was down a bit this week
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 28, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 28, 2025
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Poems, Games, and Java 25 Performance
Links for the day
Links 28/08/2025: Greenland 'Interferences' by US and Skinnerboxes to Get Banned in Korean Schools
Links for the day
Richard Stallman (RMS) Talk in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress Will be Remote
This past week RMS received lots of accolades online
The Register MS (Run by Microsoft Operatives): Free Software is Putin, Hence Evil and Dangerous
The current editor in chief is an American Microsofter, the previous one went to work for Google (US)
Links 28/08/2025: Chatbots Distorting/Fabricating History and Also Driving Suicide
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/08/2025: Back in Japan and Why "Hacker News" Sucks
Links for the day
A Much-Needed Wake-up Call to Users of Wordpress.com, Blogspot, Substack and All Those Other Outsourced (and Centralised) Platforms
There are several lessons in there
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Resists Software Freedom, Even by Attacking Its Own
The OSI is compromised
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 27, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com, Slopfarms in Google News, and More
Some readers of ours end up sending us links that are from slopfarms, not realising those are slopfarms