Dishing some dirt on Free software?

COMCAST'S DISREGARD for net neutrality was particularly interesting not just because it's an assault on Freedom and also form of censorship. It was also their close relationship with Microsoft which seemed worth exploring. Another such company is Australia’s largest ISP, which has just announced an alliance with a foreign convicted monopolist, Microsoft.

Smack bang in the middle of the timeslot that Telstra was meant to be speaking at a Sydney broadband conference about its NBN plans in a panel mostly comprised of its competitors, Telstra has instead pulled out, as reported, and has made a major announcement with Microsoft instead.

This is also covered in:

• Telstra joins Microsoft's online foray



• Telstra to sell more Microsoft products

The development is particularly relevant to us because of this report from less than a year ago.

Major Aussie ISP Telstra BigPond shafts open source OpenOffice

Australia’s largest Internet service provider Telstra BigPond has removed the free open source office suite OpenOffice from its unmetered file download area following the launch of its own, free, hosted, office application, BigPond Office.

[...]

Our reader was outraged by Telstra’s move, which he sees as an attack on the open source software movement.

“The principle of the matter upsets me,” he said. “The fact that BigPond has removed previously allowed open source software is un-ethical. They are discriminating against me, even though I pay the same as other customers. They are attacking the Free Software movement.”

It's too risky to allow ISPs to police traffic, especially when they liaise with other companies and can throttle traffic depending on business interests. ⬆

"Mr. Emerson and I discussed a variety of investment structures wherein Microsoft would 'backstop,' or guarantee in some way, BayStar's investment.... Microsoft assured me that it would in some way guarantee BayStar's investment in SCO."

--Larry Goldfarb, investor in SCO