Summary: Microsoft's monopoly abuse with ActiveSync and Live@Edu is revisited; troubling sights in India encourage preventive action -- urgently

ON THE FACE of it, Microsoft still (ab)uses its monopoly in order to charge competitors for mail and collaboration APIs, the latest example being Apple customers, not just Google, Scalix/Xandros, and others to whom software patents are seen as acceptable.

The Live@Edu scam is another case of Microsoft abuse in mail and collaboration. This one relies on bribes (or "incentives") and ignorance (or selfishness). Recently we gave some examples in [1, 2, 3, 4]. Microsoft actually competes very viciously with Google in this area, but we lack evidence to suggest that Google offers bribes like Microsoft does. Watch the hypocrisy of Microsoft, which is now accusing Google of being monopolistic. We should really all just lean on Microsoft to save us from all those evil monopolists. Really. Microsoft to the rescue!

Here is a new account of what Microsoft achieves with Live@Edu:

It’s an interesting approach, and both companies are providing their products free for a reason. Perhaps now this will shed some light on the internal processes both Microsoft and Google take into account when offering free services or products.

What do you think? Ethical? Unethical? Good business practice or doomed to bite them in the arse?

Microsoft -- unlike Google -- has another methodology for spreading Live@Edu through a separate type of bribes. Microsoft is recruiting young people whom it calls MSPs (Microsoft Student Partners). They are hired 'shills' for Microsoft, whom Microsoft feeds with gifts, as we showed before. Microsoft is doing a lot of this in India these days. It is a modern, digital form of colonisation with the help of people who betray their country('s autonomy).

The Times of India had this coverage some days ago. It is very superficial and promotional, but it serves to show that Microsoft has not changed its ways.

To acquaint information and technology students with latest tools and software technology, Microsoft Student Partners (MSP) has launched a state-wide educative programme. The programme's first phase kick-started with a workshop at Navrachana University (NU) here on Sunday.

"This is our first programme of the state-wide plan wherein we will cover 10 universities in Gujarat, including MS University. We are also looking to promote collaboration between universities and Microsoft through two major programmes - MSDN Academic Alliance and Live@Edu," said Prakhar Agarwal, MSP programme head in Gujarat.

This is ridiculous. Universities can trivially host their own mail using Free software, not Fog Computing. Whether knowingly or not, those promoting such programmes are not just promoting multi-nationals but they also help turn their peers into slaves of a single foreign company that probably has the most appalling track record in its field. Witness who else is helping Microsoft in India at the moment. It's Microsoft's old shill, TCS. Along with (potentially) tens of thousands of 'charities' that were seemingly offered gentle bribes from Microsoft, TCS lobbied for OOXML. And now:

IT outsourcing firm Tata Consultancy Services has entered into an alliance with Microsoft India to launch a virtualisation Center of Excellence (CoE) in Chennai.

That, together with EDGI, should be sufficient reason to kick Microsoft out of India, just as the British were once forced out. Microsoft exploits India, but it pays/bribes enough Indian people to carry on serving Microsoft's agenda in the country. As the highly-regarded Professor Deepak Phatak put it last year, "This hypothetical counter complaint shows Microsoft as working at national and International forums to maintain and enhance its monopoly in global markets, and as attempting to ensure its monopoly strangle-hold on Indian desktop Market. It also paints INFOSYS, TCS, WIPRO and NASSCOM as willfully helping Microsoft in this evil design, and thus acting grossly against Indian National interests." ⬆

"The alliance uses Microsoft technologies instead of challenging Gates in his own game. Wipro is just a servant of Microsoft facilitating Indian cyber slavery under the American corporate banners."

--India Daily