Bonum Certa Men Certa

Why Does Microsoft (Pretend to) Speak for Small Businesses in Europe?

Microsoft Euro



Summary: Microsoft interjects itself into yet another SMB panel in Europe, whose goal is apparently to promote SMB-hostile practices including patent monopolies

Microsoft has a lobbying arm which pretends to be a representative of SMBs in the EU, but on the face of it, Microsoft need not always hide behind lobbying arms when it does this. Now that Microsoft attacks Linux quite hard with software patents overseas (especially in east Asia), this monopolist is working to expand software patents to more continents like Europe. Knowing that software patents are good for monopolists like SAP, Microsoft, Siemens, etc. Microsoft needs to just hijack the voice of the vast majority of companies which would suffer from software patents (see signatures in any petition on software patents in Europe). There is hardly a better way to achieve this than to ensure your own people are on the panel with a sob story title ("Innovative companies – Going for broke?") and deals with "How to bridge the funding gap for SMEs".



Richard L. Hudson is inviting loads of people this week to a roundtable meeting in Brussels (centre for lobbyists). It will take place on November 17th and topics include: "Why is it so hard to raise funding for innovative young companies in Europe?"

Young companies, eh? Like Microsoft? Well, one of the speakers there is Andrew Herbert, a Microsoft chairman. Seriously now, what does Microsoft have to do with it? Microsoft has been killing small companies for decades while lobbying for laws that outlaw these companies' operations.

"Ideas on the table," writes Hudson, "from many sources, include:

"Instituting a new programme of small business innovation loans or grants, at Member-State and EU level

"Creating a new facility at the European Investment Fund to stimulate more SME financing

"New tax incentives for innovative SMEs and their investors

"An ‘innovative-company’ label to help new SMEs attract more private financing

"This meeting will be an open discussion of how EU policy in this field will evolve. A special ScienceBusiness report will summarise and move forward the ideas.

If it's intended to have an effect on "how EU policy in this field will evolve," then it helps show how lobbying continues to set the agenda and Microsoft is part of it, pushing the whole "innovation" (reference to patents) propaganda 'on behalf' of small businesses.

Recent Techrights' Posts

EPO Education: Workers Resort to Legal Actions (Many Cases) Against the Administration
At the moment the casualties of EPO corruption include the EPO's own staff
 
Microsofters Try to Defund the Free Software Foundation (by Attacking Its Founder This Week) and They Tell People to Instead Give Money to Microsoft Front Groups
Microsoft people try to outspend their critics and harass them
[Meme] EPO for the Kids' Future (or Lack of It)
Patents can last two decades and grow with (or catch up with) the kids
Topics We Lacked Time to Cover
Due to a Microsoft event (an annual malware fest for lobbying and marketing purposes) there was also a lot of Microsoft propaganda
Gemini Links 22/11/2024: ChromeOS, Search Engines, Regular Expressions
Links for the day
This Month is the 11th Month of This Year With Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (So Far It's Happening Every Month This Year, More Announced Hours Ago)
Now they even admit it
Links 22/11/2024: Software Patents Squashed, Russia Starts Using ICBMs
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, November 21, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, November 21, 2024
Gemini Links 21/11/2024: Alphabetising 400 Books and Giving the Internet up
Links for the day
Links 21/11/2024: TikTok Fighting Bans, Bluesky Failing Users
Links for the day
Links 21/11/2024: SpaceX Repeatedly Failing (Taxpayers Fund Failure), Russian Disinformation Spreading
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Earned Two More Honorary Doctorates Last Month
Two more doctorate degrees
KillerStartups.com is an LLM Spam Site That Sometimes Covers 'Linux' (Spams the Term)
It only serves to distract from real articles
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, November 20, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Gemini Links 20/11/2024: Game Recommendations, Schizo Language
Links for the day
Growing Older and Signs of the Site's Maturity
The EPO material remains our top priority
Did Microsoft 'Buy' Red Hat Without Paying for It? Does It Tell Canonical What to Do Now?
This is what Linus Torvalds once dubbed a "dick-sucking" competition or contest (alluding to Red Hat's promotion of UEFI 'secure boot')
Links 20/11/2024: Politics, Toolkits, and Gemini Journals
Links for the day
Links 20/11/2024: 'The Open Source Definition' and Further Escalations in Ukraine/Russia Battles
Links for the day
[Meme] Many Old Gemini Capsules Go Offline, But So Do Entire Web Sites
Problems cannot be addressed and resolved if merely talking about these problems isn't allowed
Links 20/11/2024: Standing Desks, Broken Cables, and Journalists Attacked Some More
Links for the day
Links 20/11/2024: Debt Issues and Fentanylware (TikTok) Ban
Links for the day
Jérémy Bobbio (Lunar), Magna Carta and Debian Freedoms: RIP
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Jérémy Bobbio (Lunar) & Debian: from Frans Pop to Euthanasia
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
This Article About "AI-Powered" is Itself LLM-Generated Junk
Trying to meet quotas by making fake 'articles' that are - in effect - based on plagiarism?
Recognizing invalid legal judgments: rogue Debianists sought to deceive one of Europe's most neglected regions, Midlands-North-West
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Google-funded group distributed invalid Swiss judgment to deceive Midlands-North-West
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 20/11/2024: BeagleBone Black and Suicide Rates in Switzerland
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, November 19, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, November 19, 2024