Summary: Putting in context some of the poor reporting (or whitewash) regarding Microsoft's bribe (disguised as "partnership") to Barnes & Noble

TECHRIGHTS sincerely regrets to report that the media is letting down the historical record, letting down facts, and ultimately letting down Free software, which has been under a massive patent attack from Microsoft since the Microsoft-Novell deal (November of 2006). While the corporate press would have us believe that Microsoft now "loves" GNU/Linux and is embracing FOSS (like a python embraces sheep maybe), the truth could not be further from that. Day after day this form of propaganda or conditioning would have us believe that white is black and black is white. It's the same in technology as it is in politics.

Microsoft's hatred of GNU/Linux and FOSS is best understood, objectively, by looking at Microsoft's actions, especially backroom deals that it hides from journalists or prevents (through abuse and trolling) journalists from revealing to the public. One cannot judge an action by assessing only what the subject of scrutiny presents. Microsoft is great at media manipulation and today's example is an excellent one. History is being rewritten before our eyes.

"Several years down the line the press suffers amnesia and something that resembles Nokia revisionism (blaming Nokia rather than Microsoft for Nokia's demise)."Several years ago we explained why Microsoft's 'partnership' with Barnes & Noble was essentially a bribe against Linux. Groklaw covered this repeatedly in about half a dozen long articles. Several years down the line the press suffers amnesia and something that resembles Nokia revisionism (blaming Nokia rather than Microsoft for Nokia's demise).

Truthfully, we have already said almost everything that there is to be said about the latest news, but the CBS-owned CNET has just published a peculiar piece with Microsoft's statement embedded. It's revisionism from Don Reisinger, who relays the most omissions-filled story we have found so far (no need for an extensive articles roundup here). Absolutely nothing is said about the patent battle that Microsoft tried to end as it put in jeopardy the whole racket operation that Microsoft had been running against many companies. Nothing! It makes it sound like an innocent 'deal' where Barnes & Noble is the loser and Microsoft is the supposed 'rescuer'.

In our assessment, which may seem blunt, Barnes & Noble should take Microsoft to court again, both for extortion and for bribery (intended to hide the extortion and keep it going). Here is Reisinger's 'article' acting as a Microsoft platform with Microsoft taking points:

"As the respective business strategies of each company evolved, we mutually agreed that it made sense to terminate the agreement," a Microsoft spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement, providing little insignt into the decision to nix the marriage with Barnes & Noble.

Translation: we no longer needed to suppress our victim, which we had been blackmailing, so we swiftly went away, having left in tatters yet another so-called 'partner'. We successfully completed a “divide and rule” Mafia routine, accomplishing sustainable of our profitable, fear-inducing racket.

This it was not a "partnership" as Microsoft boosters try to label it; it's a disguise for a bribe to be passed over and stay in tact while the company dies and is no longer willing to battle Microsoft in court over the blackmail from Microsoft's Mafia thugs.

Will Hill wrote about that report (and ones like it) as well, noting that it's a form of bribe. He pieced together older bits of coverage about that.

Microsoft Damage to Barnes and Noble

News about the end of Microsoft's software patent extortion schemes is being used to broadcast old talking points. OEMs big and small are ending their "deals" with Microsoft in the wake of recent US court decisions and the complete failure of Apple's "thermonuclear" patent assault on Android. Now that we start to hear about Barnes and Noble, the Microsoft press is cranking up and people might be tempted to wade through endless chains of Microsoft nonsense. Go straight to your favorite search engine and read through Groklaw or Techrights instead.

Microsoft booster, Peter Bright, reports the end of the Barnes and Noble software patent extortion. The article is relatively fact and history free but the news has stirred up all sorts of misinformation, as is always the case when Microsoft destroys things. That's a shame because the B&N case taught us a great deal about Microsoft's extortion tactics and how they ruin companies.

Barnes and Noble was unusual because the company initially refused Microsoft and refused to sign a non disclosure agreement. When they fought Microsoft's advances, they were free to tell the world what was happening. Groklaw and Techrights followed the case closely. It only ended when Microsoft paid B&N a $300 million dollar bribe to settle.

Two damaging pieces of misinformation showing up are that Microsoft made a billion dollars a year from Samsung over software patents and that Nook was always a loser. This was an estimate irresponsibly presented as fact by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols,

What we didn't know was just how much Microsoft profits from its patent deals from any single vendor. Now we do. In 2013 alone, Microsoft made a billion dollars from its Samsung Android patent licensing deal alone.

If you click through the author's self cite, you see the same number presented as an estimate, along with quotes from the paid Microsoft shill, Florian Mueller. Behind that is six levels of Microsoft press obfuscation and self referencing nonsense. There's a a Yahoo reprint of a BGR article which itself references a Digital Trends article from August 2013, rife with wild guesses and misinformation from Garner, $1 per device, and crazier estimates from Goldman Sachs (2011) and Trefis (2012). That's the way the Microsoft pres works to establish complete bullshit as common knowledge and smear competitors with wild talking points like, "Google’s message to device makers has been Android is free and open, but you’re on your own if someone sues," while Google was working with Motorola to fight the same lawsuits.

The bit about Nook being a loser is presented as a fact without citations but is easily disproved. Techrights documented the precipitous decline that followed the Microsoft deal. Microsoft boosters say the same things about Nokia before Elop and every other company Microsoft destroys.

What B&N really showed us is conveniently hidden behind a cloud of Microsoft press bullshit. They proved it was better to fight Microsoft's flimsy patents and that licensing deal speculation is pure hogwash. How could anyone believe Microsoft is paid some money per device when it's obvious that B&N was paid to shut up and no one else is talking? That's the magic of Microsoft press perception management.

I have a feeling that the only thing keeping Microsoft out of bankruptcy is US government money. Besides the usual flow of government and big dumb company spending, we know that Microsoft got their share of "bail out" in the 2008 mortgage fraud meltdown and wealth transfer. We also know that Microsoft has been getting their share of NSA money which, of course, was carefully obfuscated in annual reports.

Thanks, Dr. Roy Schestowitz (罗伊) for following B&N so well over the years.

To summarise, Barnes & Noble is not just a victim of a Microsoft 'partnership'. It was first the victim of Microsoft racketeering, whereupon it challenged Microsoft in court and then received a large bribe from Microsoft to allow Microsoft to carry on the racket (against companies other than Barnes & Noble).

And some say (and even insist) that Microsoft has changed...

Microsoft and the Mafia share a lot more than the first letter. ⬆