Bonum Certa Men Certa

Formal Complaint Against European Commission for Harbouring Microsoft Lobbyists

EU flag



Summary: European Ombudsman to receive complaint about Lars Hindkjær Pederse, who hides Microsoft lobbyists like Jonathan Zuck

THIS will hopefully be the last part in a series that attempts to expose how Microsoft derails European policy, using lobbyists. Some months ago we caught an example and for a bit of chronology, see:



The European Commission did not respond to our request for input regarding contributions from Microsoft lobbyists. Here is a portion of my last exchange with the Commission:

>>> * draft contributions of all industry Working groups on a the >>> European Software Strategy >>> * draft input to all WG prepared by the Commission >>> * the participant list of the related meeting on January >>> 20th in Brussels >>> * all submissions from industry to the ESS consultation under >>> the applicable provisions of regulation 1049/2001 >>> which grant me a right of access to all documents >>> mentioned above."

Hi,

Thank you. Some files are still missing.

I shall ask again for more documents, including written contributions of the different participants. What you are giving me are the final papers, not the history of the whole editing process.


It has been 2 weeks. No reply, obviously.

As one of our readers rightly puts it, "They also made a mockery of our request, the Zuck contribution is not even in there." It is kindly advised that Europeans reading this site proceed to the Ombudsman immediately and file a complaint. As a regular reader puts it, "Why does the Commission continue to hide documents published by Wikileaks?"

Here is another newer leak (not from us) regarding the Commission's sheltering of Microsoft lobbyists.

Request:

"* all submissions from industry to the ESS consultation under the applicable provisions of regulation 1049/2001 which grant me a right of access to all documents mentioned above." "

Answer:

"We are unable to identify the documents referred to in the 6th item "all submissions from industry to the ESS consultation", as we notified you previously (see our emails dated 15th April 2009, 8th May 2009 and 27th of May 2009)."

Where is the contribution from ACT in the Commission answer?


Glyn Moody took a look at documents that we had obtained and shared. He then wrote about SAP's role in this whole fiasco. SAP and Microsoft are very, very close to each other.

For example, the European Commission organised seven workgroups looking at various aspects of European software policy. One of these was on open source. Among the groups taking part in this was the Free Software Foundation Europe, and SAP. At the end of their joint report (PDF, HTML), there are a number of appendices that represent the particular views of participants. SAP's is by far the longest, running to some 17 pages.

Most of that space is used to bolster the following statements through supporting comments of various kinds (mostly links to news items):

A number of key open source projects depend on the contributions by mixed source / hybrid model companies

Hybrid / mixed source models seem to be a key element of the larger open source ecosystem

Open source development like closed source development has its pros and cons

It is very difficult to discriminate between open source and non-open source vendors any longer

Open source software is proprietary as well

Different business models and business interest lead to different positions regarding IPR, standardization and interoperability


I have obtained a complaint form from the Ombudsman and filed a complaint at the ombudsman against Lars Hindkjær Pedersen and the European Commission, DG InfoSoc. For those who are able and willing to help using similar complaints, here is how I completed the form that I shall drop in the postbox tomorrow:

3: Misconduct and delay: public access request concerning documents about the European Software Strategy (ESS) under Lars Hindkjær Pedersen and several colleagues at the European Commission, DG Infosoc

4. Breach of Article 255 TEC - improper conduct and delay of the Commission in its application of directive EC/1049/2001 concerning repeated and confirmatory request for document access

- alleged difficulty in finding documents which relate to the ESS. The Commission confirmed a provided non-exhaustive list and helped find some of the documents, but repeated the call for clarifications ad nauseam.

- The request and communication was directed to the department in charge of the European Software Strategy (ESS), who are in possession of relevant documents.

- deadlines under the legal base have expired without grant of any access to the requested documents or an official decision.

5.

- grant access and help to identify the documents, cmp. Article 15 EC/1049/2001

- examine all documents in their possession concerning the ESS process.

- meet the legal requirements under Article 15 EC/1049/2001

6. - yes.

7. - cmp. Article 8 c) EC/1049/2001

8. - no

9.

10 - no


For those who are willing to do likewise, please fill it out, then sent it to The European Ombudsman — 1 Avenue du Président Robert Schuman — B.P. 403 — FR- 67001 Strasbourg Cedex — France.

"Value your freedom or you will lose it, teaches history. "Don't bother us with politics," respond those who don't want to learn."

--Richard Stallman

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

OpenBSD Says That Even on Linux, Wayland Still Has a Number of Rough Edges (But IBM Wants to Make X Extinct)
IBM tries to impose unready software on users
Professor Eben Moglen on How Social Control Media Metabolises Humans and Constraints Freedom of Thought
Nothing of value would be lost if all these data-harvesting giants (profiling people) vanished overnight
 
Media Cannot Tell the Difference Between Microsoft and Iran
a platform with back doors
Links 28/11/2023: New Zealand's Big Tobacco Pivot and Google Mass-Deleting Accounts
Links for the day
Justice is Still the Main Goal
The skulduggery seems to implicate not only Microsoft
[Teaser] Next Week's Part in the Series About Anti-Free Software Militants
an effort to 'cancel' us and spy on us
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Permacomputing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
IRC Proceedings: Monday, November 27, 2023
IRC logs for Monday, November 27, 2023
When Microsoft Blocks Your Access to Free Software
"Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches." [Chicago Sun-Times]
Techrights Statement on 'Cancel Culture' Going Out of Control
relates to a discussion we had in IRC last night
Stuff People Write About Linux
revisionist pieces
Links 28/11/2023: Rosy Crow 1.4.3 and Google Drive Data Loss
Links for the day
Links 27/11/2023: Australian Wants Tech Companies Under Grip
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Links 27/11/2023: Underwater Data Centres and Gemini, BSD Style!
Links for the day
[Meme] Leaning Towards the Big Corporate CoC
Or leaning to "the green" (money)
Software Freedom Conservancy Inc in 2022: Almost Half a Million Bucks for Three People Who Attack Richard Stallman and Defame Linus Torvalds
Follow the money
[Meme] Identity Theft and Forgery
Coming soon...
Microsoft Has Less Than 1,000 Mail (MX) Servers Left, It's Virtually Dead in That Area (0.19% of the Market)
Exim at 254,000 servers, Postfix at 150,774, Microsoft down to 824
The Web is Dying, Sites Must Evolve or Die Too
Nowadays when things become "Web-based" it sometimes means more hostile and less open than before
Still Growing, Still Getting Faster
Articles got considerably longer too (on average)
In India, the One Percent is Microsoft and Mozilla
India is where a lot of software innovations and development happen, so this kind of matters a lot
Feeding False Information Using Sockpuppet Accounts and Imposters
online militants try every trick in the book, even illegal stuff
What News Industry???
Marketing, spam, and chatbots
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, November 26, 2023
IRC logs for Sunday, November 26, 2023
The Software Freedom Law Center's Eben Moglen Explains That We Already Had Free Software Almost Everywhere Before (Half a Century Ago)
how code was shared in the 1970s and 80s
When the So-called 'Cancel Culture' Sees Everything in Free Software Through the Scopes of 'Sex' (Because It Cannot Argue on Technical or Legal Grounds)
Losing the plot
Links 26/11/2023: Debunking So-called G.A.I. and Sierra Leone's National Curfew
Links for the day
In the 'Phoronix Universe', Single Job Openings at AMD Are News, But Not ~400 Layoffs
like a classifieds section
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Microsoft Shamelessly Attacks Both Git and Projects in GitHub, Using Plagiarism in "AI" Clothing (Exit GitHub Now!)
A mountain of plagiarism
Microsoft Loses Market Share, Market Price of Windows Plunges to Almost Nothing (28 Dollars for Vista 10)
GNU/Linux has grown so potent that Microsoft now charges only dozens of bucks for Vista 10
Professor Eben Moglen Stands with Snowden While Moglen's 'Critics' (Microsofters) Keep Defaming Prominent Whistleblowers
Don't listen to Microsoft liars and weasels, who merely try to "replace" Moglen and override his message
"Check Point" + Microsoft Partnerships Extend to Anti-GNU/Linux FUD
a close partner/pusher of Microsoft tries to alter the narrative (change reality itself)
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, November 25, 2023
IRC logs for Saturday, November 25, 2023
Links 26/11/2023: Fresh Concerns Over North Korea Satellite Ambitions and South China Sea Patrols
Links for the day
Eben Moglen Explains the Connection Between FSF and SFLC (Both of Which Under Attack by Microsofters)
Old clip