Resumen: Las guerras de patentes y la burocracia frenan la producción, crean burbujas financieras, y en última instancia, pueden dar lugar a un aumento de la deuda.
NO es este tipo famoso de broma que termina con “a continuación, los terroristas ganan!” Eso es básicamente la idea detrás del título de arriba (no es que los chinos sean terroristas, yo personalmente admiro a los chinos). Lo peor que puede hacer Occidente es abandonar la producción y asumir erróneamente que los vendedores de papel en una época de los llamados “trabajadores del conocimiento” ayuden a pagar la enorme deuda a China. La realidad es, China ya se inmuniza contra las patentes occidentales y al mismo tiempo la pérdida de tiempo y energía Occidental en el pleito, las solicitudes de patentes, la revisión de patentes, y la mutilación de productos como medio de evitar ser demandados, las exportaciones de China está creciendo exponencialmente. Esto es INNEGABLE.
Wayne Borean hace eco del análisis que hemos visto un montón a finales de 2008, cuando los mercados mundiales se derrumbaron [http://madhatter.ca/2010/10/31/the-intellectual-property-bubble-the-next-danger-to-the-world-economy/]. Dice que “la propiedad intelectual” es una burbuja que infla artificialmente la valoración de muchas cosas sin valor. Y además, para citar a:
“Intelectual Ventures es una de las muchas empresas que está invirtiendo en la innovación de acuerdo a su sus comunicados de prensa. Otra es la Acacia Technologies. Estas compañías están comprando las patentes, y tratar de conceder sus “licencias”.”
Como si el “negocio” de la patente no es ya bastante malo, los abogados de IAM dicen que en Gran Bretaña hay esta noción de “incentivo fiscal de patentes [http://www.iam-magazine.com/blog/detail.aspx?g=cd9304ef-1c63-4fa3-9940-998393dcb26d]” en la tubería. Ridículo! Ya lo hemos mencionado anteriormente.
El Instituto de Estudios Fiscales – una altamente respetada, organización de investigación independiente que examina la política fiscal y económica en el Reino Unido – ha publicado un documento que cuestiona la eficacia de la introducción de un llamado cuadro de patentes. Según las propuestas, que se anunció por primera vez por el gobierno anterior, y ahora han sido sellada con caucho por el actual gobierno, derivada de las patentes en el Reino Unido estarían sujetos a una tasa del Impuesto sobre Sociedades de un sólo 10%.
Para competir en este siglo (incluso en diez años) y como medio para mantener o recuperar su dominio, Occidente tendrá que eliminar el “impuesto de innovación” – los gastos ocultos relacionados con las patentes y la mega industria que se cierne sobre ella como un grupo de buitres o satélites optimizados para misiles guiados. Hagan productos no la guerra (de patentes). █
Summary: Danger of depending on someone else’s secret code (Microsoft Windows) demonstrated by Stuxnet and the collateral damage of spreading of viruses by governments
Conspiracy theory? No, not just a theory anymore. There are loads of articles derived from the first one this weekend:
Behind Dimona’s barbed wire, the experts say, Israel has spun nuclear centrifuges virtually identical to Iran’s at Natanz, where Iranian scientists are struggling to enrich uranium. They say Dimona tested the effectiveness of the Stuxnet computer worm, a destructive program that appears to have wiped out roughly a fifth of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges and helped delay, though not destroy, Tehran’s ability to make its first nuclear arms.
US and Israeli intelligence services collaborated to develop a destructive computer worm to sabotage Iran’s efforts to make a nuclear bomb, The New York Times reported on Saturday. In its online edition, the Times quoted intelligence and military experts as saying Israel has tested the effectiveness of the Stuxnet computer worm, which apparently shut down a fifth of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges in November and helped delay its ability to make its first nuclear weapons.
The testing took place at the heavily guarded Dimona complex in the Negev desert housing the Middle East’s sole, albeit undeclared nuclear weapons program. Experts and officials told the Times the effort to create Stuxnet was a US-Israeli project with the help, knowingly or not, of Britain and Germany.
It’s called “an admission against interest” in legal circles. Example: When the New York Times says something good about George W. Bush. It was George W. Bush’s fault, the NYT just confessed, that the Stuxnet computer worm ended up destroying 984 Iranian uranium centrifuges over the last year or so. Bush got the Stuxnet program started in cooperation with Israel and other countries in the last years of his presidency.
It added it was not clear the attacks were over and that some experts believed the Stuxnet code contained the seeds for more versions and assaults.
What about all the innocent businesses and homes that got infected by the same worm? Can they sue the involved governments for damages? Why is it OK for governments to do what people normally go to jail for?
It ought to be mentioned that Techrights covered this like 3 times before (see links below), but only now is it more confirmed. █
Summary: Articles that cover microfinance in the context of robber barons help show that microfinance to money is like Microsoft to life
MICROFINANCE or micro-lending is a subject we covered in the context of the Gates Foundation [1, 2, 3] and the Grameen Foundation, which has roots in Microsoft [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] and is connected directly to the Gates Foundation through collaboration. But what exactly is it that they do? Welcome to the world of micro-lending — a world where even the world’s poorest people get exploited for whatever they have left, be it hard labour (being forced to endlessly produce to meet quotas, in order to pay back unwanted loans), prostitution, and whatnot. In order to explain this predatory segment of the financial industry we can firstly recommend the following video:
For a more direct explanation about micro-lending, use the links at the top (e.g. [1, 2]). This is a subject that we covered many times before and this time we cover it using news from the past 2 months. The short story is that the Gates Foundation is pushing loans. A fashionable way to do so as of late is to offer mobile phones in some very poor countries. While this can be painted as donation of means of communication, this is actually a Trojan horse for predatory banks from the West (remember that Bill Gates is investing in Goldman Sachs, which is controversial because Goldman Sachs monetises famine). What Gates does here is akin to giving poor people the ‘gift’ of debt, i.e. greater dependence on amoral or immoral corporations from the West. What does that lead to? Let’s look at some news.
One of our favourite journalists as of late explains quite nicely why the Gates Foundation is preying on the most vulnerable, who need to borrow money just to eat:
Christen says the philanthropy has found in its exploration of financial services that when you go into a poor community they get 5-to-10 requests for savings services for every request for a microloan.
“In a visit to Tanzania,” Melinda Gates said. “I was just blown away to see people standing in a line at the bank for three hours.”
The poor want to save, she said, and the Gates Foundation hopes to launch a revolution in this area of financial services for the poor.
Here’s the foundation’s statement on its new push into micro-savings and a list of the first round of grants.
This is also a business opportunity for the likes of Monsanto, which the Gates Foundation invests in. The philanthrocapitalism.net Web site has this to say: “The mere thought that the Grameen Bank might be taken over by the government of Bangladesh and that Muhammad Yunus, its Nobel Peace Prize-winning founder, might be forcibly retired, is shocking. But senior people inside the world’s best-known microfinance institution fear that this may happen, perhaps quite soon. Already, senior Grameen staff have had to phone each of the bank’s branches to refute press reports that Mr Yunus had resigned, reports that had threatened to panic savers into withdrawing their money and borrowers to stop repaying loans.”
“This is also a business opportunity for the likes of Monsanto, which the Gates Foundation invests in.”Pay careful attention to this Web site, philanthrocapitalism.net, which shows Clinton’s continued support for Gates’ agenda and Microsoft’s agenda too (they know they would be wise to hang out where the money is [1, 2] and their daughter recently married a Goldman Sachs investment banker).
Our reader Toby had more to say about this subject of microfinance: “get them participating in the usury system… billionaires have EVERY RIGHT to skim from the world’s poorest… meanwhile, credit card companies are offering 30% interest to Americans (and canadians iirc)…”
Toby linked to this new Bloomberg article from which he quoted: “Andhra Pradesh, where three-quarters of the 76 million people live in rural areas, suffered a total of 14,364 suicide cases in the first nine months of 2010 [...] “Selling debt is like selling drugs,” says Harper, 75, the author of more than 20 books on microfinance and other topics. “Selling debt to illiterate women in Andhra Pradesh, you’ve got to be a lot more responsible.””
Quoting further from this article of strong content:
More than 70 people committed suicide in the state from March 1 to Nov. 19 to escape payments or end the agonies their debt had triggered, according to the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty, a government agency that compiled the data on the microfinance-related deaths from police and press reports.
[...]
She says she ran away from home after collectors began harassing her. She took out multiple loans beginning in 2005, and she names Spandana as one of the lenders.
Some of the money paid for the funeral of her eldest son. When she fell behind on payments, she says loan officers threatened to humiliate her in front of neighbors and pressed her to sell her small grandchildren into prostitution.
In establishment political discussions no one is supposed to consider that some of the powerful people being discussed really are making decisions based on goals they want which are nasty and immoral.
But instead of being able to bring motive into analysis, we robotically repeat things like:
“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity”
Which is not an argument at all, but a command in the form of an aphorism, designed to cut off, and not further, rational analysis of what goes on around us.
Due to this muting by aphorism, we’re supposed to assume that, yeah, the people around us, yeah *they* may have selfish or harmful motives at times (or certain people more so), but, no, no, we mustn’t speak that way abut the powerful.
No matter what the subject is, we aren’t supposed to question the Honorable Intentions of our leaders. Not even when they’re lying to force the nation into a murderous invasion and occupation for reasons clearly against any sane conception of the ‘national interest’ (i.e., the interests of us inhabitants of the nation) but which did clearly benefit the ideological convictions, political fortunes, and economic connections of the government which did so.
So, while pundits and establishment discussants may wish us to avoid any analysis of political decisions which is allowed to consider malice as a reasonable aspect of intent, I don’t think sane people should similarly refuse.
Talk radio certainly doesn’t refrain from ascribing nefarious motives to every Democrat and liberal, and in no way is it somehow dignified or noble to decide that in response, we’ll cut off that part of our rationality which has to consider why humans in positions of power might want to do what they do.
On January 10th, Dr. Glyn Moody had drawn some more attention to the problem at hand. “More World Bank fail, in Uzbekistan,” he called it, quoting: “Most disturbing was the Bank’s underreporting and minimizing of child labor, says Ezgulik.” It’s the same problem Bloomberg noted in relation to microfinance.
An Uzbek human rights group concerned about the World Bank’s failure to concede state control of agriculture and the extent of child labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry has received an acknowledgement from the Bank about its concerns.
[...]
Ezgulik evaluates a World Bank review of a $67.9 million loan to Uzbekistan for rural enterprise support, granted in 2008 for the period of 2010-2015, to extend a previous project from 2001-2008. The report makes certain assumptions that Ezgulik vigorously challenges: that farm reforms are underway; that collective farms were abolished; and that private farms were established in their place. Instead, Ezgulik explains, farmers are heavily restricted, are still forced to sell quotas to the state at fixed prices, and are dependent on local administrators for loans and supplies. This situation provides an incentive for bribery so that farmers can get better resources and avoid penalties for failure to meet their quotas.
In India it has become commonplace for farmers to commit suicide by consuming Monsanto pesticides. The combination of GMO (patented seeds) and loans is an harmonious-and-nonetheless-lethal one, yet Gates supports it while sponsoring the press that covers the subject because it helps silence opposition. █
Resumen: Nuevos ejemplos de las ilegítimas ofertas de Microsoft con las naciones africanas y árabes en su mayor parte.
Cuando no se puede jugar y ganar por las reglas, ¿qué más puedes hacer? Probablemente trampa. Hace unos días hemos recibido alguna respuesta fuertemente redactada de este post acerca de los grupos de presión de Microsoft [http://techrights.org/2011/01/02/microsoft-lobbying-figures/](hay más[http://techrights.org/2011/01/04/suzan-delbene-appointment/]). David escribió: “Yo sólo sé del comportamiento de la fuerza federal de ventas de Microsoft en el pasado y por lo tanto, considero cualquier persona que se encargó de ella, ser penalmente responsable. Pero creo que voy a tener que escribir un artículo sobre este tema.”
El post de hoy es una agregación de noticias de los últimos dos meses – de noticias que nos perdimos debido a que yo tenga un muy ocupado diciembre.
Nos gustaría empezar con las noticias de un sitio de “noticias” financiado por Bill Gates (más sobre esto más adelante), que dice que “la African Capacity Building Foundation y partner de Microsoft para construir la capacidad de las TIC para el Sector Público y la sociedad civil en África [http://allafrica.com/stories/201011152131.html]”
El African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) y Microsoft se han reunido hoy para la formalización de un Memorando de Entendimiento (MOU) entre sus dos organizaciones. El objetivo del Memorando de Entendimiento es para las dos empresas a unirse a su formidable reputación y experiencia para ayudar a coordinar los diferentes programas de creación de capacidad en toda África.
Oh, sí. Otro memorando de entendimiento, que significa Memorando de Entendimiento. Para aquellos que quieren ver documentos filtrados que Microsoft explica la naturaleza depredadora de memorandos de entendimiento, comienza aquí [http://techrights.org/2009/01/14/ms-presentation-against-linux/]. Aquí hay otro comunicado de prensa [http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/skolkovo-fund-and-microsoft-sign-memorandum-of-understanding-106435058.html] titulado “Fondo de Skolkovo y Microsoft firman un Memorando de Entendimiento”.
Ahora bien, recordemos Microsoft en Jordania [http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Microsoft_in_Jordan] cuando nos acercamos a estas noticias del gobierno de Jordania [http://www.zawya.com/mobile/default.cfm/sidZAWYA20101128092940/actstory]. ¿Hubo una oferta? Feria de contratación? U ofertas bajo la mesa, como de costumbre?
Añada a Microsoft de presionar al gobierno de Qatar, con el Día Nacional de Qatar como una excusa [http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/qatar/134883-new-website-to-be-launched-for-qatar-national-day.html]. Este truco suena tan familiar. Para citar: “Los funcionarios del Consejo Nacional de la Celebración del Día del Comité Organizador, el Golfo y Microsoft de el Desarrollo Link, el proveedor líder de soluciones de TI en la región, anunciaron conjuntamente este durante la conferencia del Medio Oriente de SharePoint en el Hotel de la Cuatro Estaciones el domingo.” Esto es de esperar auto explicativo. Alojarse en esta misma región, recordemos las historias Kuwait [http://techrights.org/2010/05/14/nobody-needs-suse/] Linux [http://techrights.org/2010/05/13/kuwait-and-rht/]y cómo esta fue bloqueada por Microsoft [http://techrights.org/2010/01/28/partners-in-learning-deals/]. Añada un paso más [http://www.zawya.com/mobile/default.cfm/sidZAWYA20101209053758/actstory] en el descarrilamiento de autonomía digital de Kuwait:
Como demostración de su compromiso continuo a la mejora de la calidad de la educación y el fortalecimiento de la capacidad de aprendizaje de los estudiantes de la Universidad de Kuwait, a fin de ayudarles a ser más creativos y utilizar las últimas soluciones de TI, Microsoft Kuwait firmaron ayer un convenio con la universidad, que verá estudiantes KU ofrece tarifas especiales para su software de oficina, ‘Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010.
Microsoft está presionando el uso de eventos, esta vez en el Pakistán[http://www.thenews.com.pk/latest-news/4539.htm]. Para vergüenza. También hay adoctrinamiento nacional en Pakistán [http://tribune.com.pk/story/93465/hec-microsoft-enter-strategic-partnership/] (adoctrinamiento de Microsoft en detrimento del propio Estado):
ISLAMABAD: Comisión de Educación Superior (HEC) y Microsoft entró en una alianza estratégica en Pakistán centralizado para proporcionar servicios de TI a las universidades a través de Pakistán, según un comunicado de prensa emitido por la HEC.
Mira lo que Microsoft hace en los hospitales de Dubai[http://www.sify.com/news/microsoft-offers-health-products-for-dubai-hospitals-news-international-kkywafhjaii.html]. Para los no iniciados, Microsoft está bloqueando la adopción de software libre en Dubai [http://techrights.org/2009/11/09/new-deals-that-exclude-09/] mediante “Memorandos de Entendimiento” [http://techrights.org/2008/01/30/paris-dubai-microsoft-deal/] y en las escuelas de Delhi [http://informationweek.in/Cloud_Computing/10-12-20/Delhi_Public_School_chooses_Microsoft%E2%80%99s_cloud-based_e-mail_platform.aspx], entre otros lugares, tales como SUNY [http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20026312-75.html] (Universidad Estatal de Nueva York [http://www.ttkn.com/education/state-university-of-new-york-moves-to-microsoft%E2%80%99s-cloud-6725.html]) utiliza la Microsoft Live @ Edu estafa [http://techrights.org/2009/03/20/microsoft-live-edu-leaked/]. Se convierte a los estudiantes en vasallos Microsoft temprano en sus vidas. Este software no fiable se anuncia por la tristémente célebre Mary Jo Foley [http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-to-add-new-features-to-liveedu-starting-in-february-2011/8246], a pesar de enormes problemas en Hotmail [http://techrights.org/2011/01/04/couple-of-days-without-mail/], por ejemplo. Para cualquier persona que elija Microsoft para el correo electrónico que probablemente requiere los sobornos ofrecidos a los funcionarios por el programa Live@Edu (que se filtró gracias a alguien de la India) o algunas ofertas de trastienda *. Hablando de eso, concéntremonos en lo que Wipro y Microsoft están haciendo [http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/stock-alert/wit_wipro-wins-microsoft-platform-modernization-award-for-sales-for-2010-1306062.html] (Wipro servicios de Microsoft para obtener un premio[http://techrights.org/2010/06/21/wipro-nasscom-help-microsoft/]). Oh, bueno. Un día más en el mundo de compadrazgo de Microsoft.
Eduardo Landaveri, who is responsible for the Spanish portal of Techrights, adds to the above translation of his:
I feel very happy to belong to the Techrights Community & proud to be side by side with all of you who make Techrights possible. Thanks God for each one of you.
Why I do it? & I think the answer also applies to why you do it. The answer comes from RMS:
“Proprietary software is an injustice and we want to help you escape from it.”
–Richard Stallman
My regards to each one of you
The same quote in Spanish:
“El software propietario es una injusticia y nosotros queremos a ayudarte a escapar de el”
–Richard Stallman
We thank Eduardo Landaveri for translating the story and making the information available to more people. █
___
* Se debe hacer hincapié en que Google no es mejor en lo que respecta a las universidades (que se plantea como una batalla “Microsoft vs Google”[http://www.searchenginejournal.com/microsoft-vs-google-the-university-war/26690/] y mucho falta en esta imagen simplificada), ya que todas las universidades deben ir con el software libre en cambio, ofrecer al personal y estudiantes la independencia de los ojos de espionaje de alguna empresa exterior.
Posted in Asia, Microsoft at 2:13 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: New examples of illegitimate Microsoft deals with African and Arab nations for the most part
WHEN YOU can’t play and win by the rules, what else can you do? Probably cheat. A few days ago we received some strongly-worded reply to this post about Microsoft lobbying (there is more). David wrote: “I simply know of the behaviour of Microsoft’s federal sales force in the past and hence consider anyone who was in charge of that to be criminally liable. But I think I will have to write an article on this topic.”
Today’s post is an aggregation of news from the past couple of months — news that we missed due to me having an extremely busy December.
The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) and Microsoft today met to formalize a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between their two organizations. The purpose of the MoU is for the two companies to join their formidable reputations and expertise to help co-ordinate various capacity building programmes across Africa.
Oh, yes. Another MOU, which stands for Memorandum of Understanding. For those who want to see leaked documents where Microsoft explains the predatory nature of MOUs, start here. Here is another press release titled “Skolkovo Fund and Microsoft Sign Memorandum of Understanding”.
Watch Microsoft lobbying the government in Qatar, using Qatar National Day as an excuse. This trick sounds so familiar. To quote: “Officials of the National Day Celebration Organising Committee, Microsoft Gulf and LINK Development, the leading IT solutions provider in the region, jointly announced this during the Middle East SharePoint conference at the Four Season’s Hotel on Sunday.” This is hopefully self explanatory. Staying in this same region, let us recall the KuwaitLinux stories and how this was blocked by Microsoft. Watch another step in the derailment of Kuwait’s digital autonomy:
As a demonstration of its continuing commitment to improving the quality of education and strengthening the learning capacity of Kuwait University’s students in order to help them be more creative and use the latest IT solutions, Microsoft Kuwait yesterday signed an agreement with the university, which will see KU students offered special rates for its group office software, ‘Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010.’
ISLAMABAD: Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Microsoft entered into a strategic alliance in Pakistan to provide centralised IT services to universities across Pakistan, according to a press release issued by HEC.
Summary: Microsoft goes aboard the governments of foreign sovereign nations and makes them pay Microsoft for software it seeded among the population
SHOULD UKRAINE move to GNU/Linux and Free software? It wants to, but Microsoft stands in its way [1, 2, 3] (people to whom this is new are strongly encouraged to read these articles from the past). Here is a new Business photo of Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer in Ukraine. Here’s what it says:
During talks, Ukraine’s government pledged to legalize software it uses at government offices. (Courtesy)
Which Ukrainian sea does Microsoft allege there is ‘piracy’ in? Well, this is just an excuse for Microsoft to clench its fist and take yet more money out of Ukrainian taxpayers, whether they want to or not. As we explained before, Microsoft uses propaganda acquired from IDC to justify this plot and such propaganda is perpetually used to evoke guilt in the minds of anyone gullible enough in the country. “Microsoft Considers Beneficial For Ukraine To Reduce Pirated Software” says this other headline, which uses the lies from IDC, as usual (we have already explained why IDC lies here, on numerous occasions in fact).
He cited IDC survey data saying that 85% of software installed on personal computers in Ukraine in 2009 was pirated.
We feel for Ukraine because of its history and because of its ties to/with Russia. And this leads us to the next issue from the news. Putin makes many headlines these days (in various languages) because he advocates software freedom for Russia, including of course GNU/Linux [1, 2, 3, 4]. Microsoft is trying to derail this in Russia, as it has been doing for many years now. We covered this many times. It’s heartbreaking because of people who work hard to spread GNU/Linux in their homeland Russia, only to meet dirty tactics from the abusive monopolist.
“Microsoft helped crack down on activists as means of colluding with the Russian government to stifle dissidence.”Microsoft is already dumping software (“Microsoft takes on Putin’s Russia”), as always with the intention of keeping Microsoft monoculture there, no matter the toll. Microsoft decided to withdraw its attack on activists because it is bad PR (this Russian spin was covered here before). Not so long ago a “Russian Teacher [Was] Fired For Complaining About Having To Use Microsoft Software” and around the same time “Microsoft pledge[d] support for Russian tech hub” in a type of move where Microsoft offers a ‘gift’ to Russia in exchange for some leverage over the government (Norway is a recent example of it [1, 2]). Reporters neglect to discuss the motives [1, 2, 3, 4], but that’s what ought to be expected from docile corporate media (that last one is from Pravda and there is also CBS). This one from the religious press is funny as well, not to mention the Huff & Puff where a writer asks: “Does Microsoft care more about international software piracy and sales than it does about the persecution of dissident groups in Russia and China?”
That’s the wrong question to ask. Microsoft helped crack down on activists as means of colluding with the Russian government to stifle dissidence. The licences were just a convenient pretext or excuse. To Microsoft, this was not about making another sale or two in Russia. But hey, as Toby repeatedly tells us, the role of the Huffingtons (rich oil family) is to amplify noise/signal from channels like Fox, it’s not truly a progressive site. Here is what looks like a Ubuntu site praising Microsoft for spreading proprietary software, pretending to do ‘charity’ and addressing ‘piracy’. What a misguiding disgrace. “Somali Pirates Capture Another German Merchant Ship” says the news about real pirates. Reporters who label people who won’t pay Microsoft for Windows “pirates” deserve to be humiliated, for they too should realise that in many nations Windows is priced out of reach and Microsoft loves it when poor people resort to counterfeiting. It makes Microsoft stronger.
“But hey, as Toby repeatedly tells us, the role of the Huffingtons (rich oil family) is to amplify noise signal from channels like Fox, it’s not truly a progressive site.”On we move to China, where the government has also been coerced into serving Microsoft’s interests at citizens’ own expense (this is a critique by the way; It’s just more business in China, as part of an “Alliance”). “China to inspect government computers for pirated software” says this headline. Whose responsibility is it anyway? “Govt continues battle to halt pirated software use” says the Chinese press in English: “China will intensify efforts to push use of legal software and combat software copyright infringement including pre-installing illegal software on computers so as to improve the legal environment in the country’s software industry, officials said at a news conference in Beijing Tuesday.”
Watch the Murdoch press and Chinese press playing along [1, 2, 3]. Repression seems like a common ground to them. It is something they can both agree on.
“Microsoft China Sues Ten Dealers For Pirated Software Installations” says another Chinese site (sometimes theyextort to settle with money). To quote part of the article: “The ten dealers are Beijing Yuntong Shidai Technology Trade Company; Beijing Yuchen Shimei Technology Company; Beijing Sinetec Technology Company; Shanghai Summit Technology Company; Nanjing Bibang Network Technology Development Company; Nanjing Herun Technology Company; Guangzhou Yitai Information Technology Company; Shenzhen Prodigy Industry Company; Chengdu Bandung Haotian Technology Company; and Chengdu Xinshidai Network Company.” Another article says that “Microsoft wins piracy case against Chinese internet cafes”.
Advocate “for the software industry”? Really? It only represents about 20 companies all of which are selling proprietary software, quite exclusively too. It makes them only a small subset of the software industry, but the BSA only pretends to be something that it’s not, just as Microsoft’s front group ACT pretends to represent small businesses. These lobbyists only pressure to pass laws that are beneficial to Microsoft and recently there was a big court ruling regarding the transfer of sold software (second-hand). Watch Microsoft taking on eBay right now:
The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office began investigating Meng in September, after a private investigator with Microsoft was able to allegedly buy the counterfeit software on eBay.
When Microsoft needs to cheat in its reports regarding Windows numbers, no wonder it becomes so trigger-happy. Windows is no longer the lucrative cash cow it once was, due to decreasing cost margins. Microsoft knows what to do then… █
“They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.”
Summary: Novell staff is said to be pushing for OOXML write support in LibreOffice just when ODF becomes a standard in more and more large nations
Techrights is a supporter of LibreOffice because it is willing to believe that — as promised to us personally — the project is not steered by Novell employees. Last night in IRC one of or readers raised some concerns about what goes on at LibreOffice and its umbrella organisation. There is active discussion about it in Twitter and in Groklaw. If there are blog posts or articles about it, then we have not come across them yet. The short story is that OOXML write support becomes a controversial subject for all sorts of reasons, some more justifiable than others (and some are fictional). Charles from LibreOffice has kindly responded to us about 3 times already, denying all of the allegations (more on that in Twitter).
For those who are not familiar with this debate, start here in an IRC log from last night. This came at the same time as the news about India going with ODF, which is a fantastic development. To quote a Red Hat employee:
Here is some good news to kick off the new year. As a follow-up to the Policy on Open Standards for e-Governance, the Department of Information Technology has published the “Interoperability Framework for E-Governance in India (IFEG).”
The draft of the IFEG lists out the standards approved for e-governance in India. The last date for comments on this draft is 27th Jan 2011.
The current concern is that Novell, which was paid handsomely by Microsoft, may continue pushing for OOXML. We wrote about this last month and this question returns not just due to discussion in Groklaw but also because IBM’s Rob Weir writes that the “Document Foundation debates OOXML support in LibreOffice. With freedom it is hard to be only half pure. http://bit.ly/hjPqMU”. The FFII says: “A user is concerned about #LibreOffice #OOXML write support http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.documentfoundation.discuss/3058″
As Weir added: “Half-pure is starting with the goal of being independent of a Oracle, but then doing what Microsoft is paying Novell to do.”
“Half-pure is starting with the goal of being independent of a Oracle, but then doing what Microsoft is paying Novell to do.” –Rob Weir, IBMAs a result of this, Weir comes under another pressure offence from Microsoft, over ODF. He is having a long powwow (about 30 tweets back and forth) with Microsoft employees and also boosters like Jesper Lund Stocholm, starting with messages like this one which says: “if OSS doesn’t add support for OOXML, .NET, XPS, SilverLight , etc., then they’re “detroying your ability to choose”?”
It’s like Microsoft speaking using a peripheral person, Jesper. They spin OOXML as “choice” again. We’ll probably post a little more on this subject at a later date. A lot of it is in Twitter and in our IRC logs. Maybe it’s just a manufactured controversy, it’s still hard to tell without a lot of research and personal queries. There is more in Groklaw comments and interestingly enough, a longtime supporter of Groklaw, Brian Proffitt, opines that Groklaw should open up to more people:
The problem is that in the short term, Groklaw’s mission (stopping SCO from hurting Linux) has basically succeeded. Yes, there are pending appeals from SCO, but Jones is concerned that any efforts to continue the fight against SCO will only serve to help companies like Novell. Other suits are out there, but right now the community interest for those seems to be waning. And, I suspect, Jones’ own interest might be waning: she has been at this since 2003, while facing several personal attacks along the way. The potential for burnout has to be very real.
When one person, any person, gets so wrapped up in something and then has to deal with the lack of that issue in their lives–even if they have won–it has a profound effect.
My most constructive suggestion would be for Groklaw to become a more community-run site. Instead of being a strictly one-person show, perhaps a shift to a more collaboratively run organization is possible. There is precedent: Linus Torvalds is still leading the Linux kernel development, but over the years he has delegated a lot of responsibilities to the various kernel maintainers. Surely there are those in the Groklaw community who could step up and fill similar roles for Groklaw.
I believe this approach would enable Groklaw to dedicate more time to covering all of the different legal issues surrounding FLOSS these days. In effect, it would become a meta-blog, like Huffington Post, or Engadget, or what have you, with a focus on FLOSS legal battles.
Change isn’t easy, but it can be an opportunity to do something bigger than you had ever planned.
The whole post is very thought-provoking and it has attracted Microsoft mobbyists too (libel and crazy theories in the comments). █
Addendum: As this post comes into publication time Charles posts this rebuttal in his blog. He also told me: “I think it might be #Oracle trying run some brainfuck here. Oracle more #FOSS than #LibreOffice? Who does benefit from this?”
Resumen: ¿Cómo el poder político está siendo aprovechada por Microsoft para colonizar y controlar de forma remota de Vietnam con su software propietario?
La fundación de Bill Gates estuvo cabildeando Vietnam [http://techrights.org/2010/08/09/gates-versus-gnu-linux-in-vietnam/] para descarrilar su migración [http://techrights.org/2009/09/29/vietnam-odf-national-standard/] al Open Document Format y al Software Libre. Era más bien desagradable. El año pasado también se demostró la relación especial entre Clinton y Gates[http://techrights.org/2010/03/17/rich-uncle-bill-explored/]. “Funcionarios del ministerio de Vietnam de la Información y Comunicaciones asistierón a la ceremonia de firma con EE.UU. La secretaria de Estado Hillary Clinton y Malcolm de Silva, gerente general de Microsoft de Vietnam”, dice este nuevo informe [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-30/vietnam-microsoft-sign-agreement-to-build-up-it-industry.html]. Así que Clinton está jugando a la política para servir a su cliente de Microsoft. A expensas de quién? Del pueblo vietnamita y su libertad, que es un tema sensible después de la guerra en Vietnam. “En el marco del acuerdo”, dice el artículo, “Microsoft ayudará a Vietnam a desarrollar su fuerza de trabajo en tecnología de la información, un paso hacia el objetivo de Vietnam de ampliar el sector de las TIC de forma que representa el 20 por ciento del PIB de Vietnam.”
¿Cómo terrible. Es por eso que necesitamos Cablegate / Wikileaks. Nos ayuda a ver cómo Clinton, por ejemplo, trabaja para el comercio en lugar de actuar como un político elegido para servir a su pueblo (sí, a diferencia de las empresas).
Desde hace un tiempo en Vietnam lo hizo oficial que su gobierno se deshacería de Microsoft, pero el gobierno de Estados Unidos, la Fundación Gates [http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Gates_Foundation_Critique] y Microsoft simplemente no puede dejar solo a Vietnam. La misma táctica se utiliza en América del Sur y Rusia. Microsoft trata de imponer el uso de Office (fuente de ingresos principal, pero depende en el monocultivo de Windows) [http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Money/5631890-147/what_is_microsoft_afraid_of_.csp]y la política es su táctica. En un artículo reciente que pone:
La mayoría de personas viven bajo la idea errónea de que Windows es el producto insignia de Microsoft. No lo es. producto insignia de Microsoft, en realidad, es Microsoft Office, su suite de productividad en todas partes que se pueden encontrar en más del 90 por ciento de todos los ordenadores del planeta. Esto incluye la plataforma Mac, cuya furioza leales usuarios a regañadientes hacen uso de Microsoft Office para Mac, mientras la nativa de Apple suite ofice, iWork, se enpolva en los mostradores.
Parte de la razón para el monocultivo de Microsoft no es en absoluto técnico. Microsoft actúa como un movimiento político, así que mientras la “prensa de Microsoft se centra en los aspectos técnicos” [http://mcpmag.com/blogs/certifiable/2010/11/microsoft-in-10-years.aspx], Techrights no pasará por alto el papel de la política. Los que evitan pasar por alto la explicación de muchas decisiones. █
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