Summary: Microsoft turns to mischief in Vista 7 [sic], which puts RAND traps inside Mozilla Firefox

MICROSOFT HAS been aggressively pushing for contamination of the Web with MPEG patents (held by a patent troll, Mr. Horn), whereas Mozilla consistently pushed it back [1, 2, 3]. Firefox and Mozilla don't mix with MPEG-LA, so Ogg and WebM are advocated by its executives and developers. For some more context and background regarding MPEG-LA see:

• Canonical Needs to Tell Ubuntu Users How Much It Paid MPEG-LA for Patent 'Protection'
• Microsoft and MPEG-LA Called “Patent Trolls”, Antitrust Complaint Filed
• Patent Troll (MPEG-LA) May Own Your Personal/Family Videos
• Alexandre Oliva Explains Why the Patent Troll Larry Horn (MPEG Cartel) is Bluffing
• “We're in the Era of Digital Video, and It's a Mess,” --Steve Jobs, MPEG-LA Proponent/Lobbyist
• Simon Phipps: “MPEG-LA is a Parasite Using Standards Bodies as Its Host, Whether They Want it or Not.” (and a Rant About Banshee/Mono)
• Patents Roundup: EU Patent Deform, MPEG-LA, OIN, New Zealand, and Patent Trolls

According to CNET, Microsoft now uses Vista 7 to push MPEG-LA patent traps into Firefox, which is not even Microsoft's own software (this would not be the first time that Microsoft injects blobs of self interest into software that's not its own, despite the user providing no consent either). Here is the Slashdot discussion regarding this acceptable behaviour from Microsoft and some of the article from CNET:

Mozilla is outspoken in its dislike of the patent-encumbered video technology called H.264, but Microsoft, an H.264 fan, is providing a plug-in that will let Windows 7 users use it anyway.

[...]

Mozilla is working to try to establish WebM as a required codec for HTML5, a specification standardized by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

As Glyn Moody put it, Microsoft is "desperate to stuff #swpats [software patents] down the poor beast's gullet" (shame on Microsoft seems to be a consensus).

Microsoft's patent 'contamination' strategy is similar to the scam chosen by Monsanto, which uses patents to force farmers to pay it a tax (won't matter if they are clients of Monsanto, they can be 'accidental' clients too due to litigation). As we explained many times before, the Gates Foundation and Monsanto think alike and they are very close, unsurprisingly. There is this new article in French about it and Moody remarks on it by writing that "monopoly-lovers meet".

“The likes of MPEG-LA would only be part of such a strategy, so it's important to abolish H.264 and perhaps file a formal complaint against Microsoft for pushing MPEG-LA patents into its rival, Firefox (without permission).”Meanwhile, the eternally-vigilant Benjamin Henrion (FFII president) wrote to tell us that the "European Commission says Free Software can pay royalties" based on this EIF document [PDF]. He quotes from it: "Intellectual property rights related to the specification are licensed on FRAND terms or on a royalty-free basis in a way that allows implementation in both proprietary and open source software."

One must not forget who is promoting RAND in Europe (see our RAND category), even based on lies about Free/libre software. That would be well-paid Microsoft lobbyists. The likes of MPEG-LA would only be part of such a strategy, so it's important to abolish H.264 and perhaps file a formal complaint against Microsoft for pushing MPEG-LA patents into its rival, Firefox (without permission). As our reader "twitter" put it 2 hours ago, Microsoft's motto is, "What's ours is ours and what's yours is ours." ⬆