Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft is Against Open Access, Pro DRM

"DRM is the future."

--Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO





Summary: Microsoft makes the contents of the British Library (shown above) hostage of DRM, limits distribution of material that can be distributed infinitely for the betterment of all society

NOW that we know for sure that Microsoft does not support net neutrality, it is time to approach another related subject, which is what Microsoft has done to the British Library. We last wrote about the subject in [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] as the relationship between the British Library and Microsoft is well known and very notorious. Microsoft's entire business model is based on artificiality scarcity, which it is trying to impose upon other areas of life (Apple does too).



As we explained yesterday, Microsoft pretends to favour "Open Source" where it actually promotes software patents and proprietary software with this fraudulent "open-source" label. Likewise, Microsoft can pretend to support Open Access (OA) as much as it wants; its actions show that it does exactly the opposite. Microsoft does, for example, fake the whole "Open Data" thing, where access is granted only to customers of Microsoft. "Open Data" is that misleading label which Microsoft uses to market proprietary, standards-hostile software to governments and this new post from Cambridge is no exception.

I am delighted to be able to help BMC with their Open Data award, co-sponsored by Microsoft (see below which I quote in full).


It is co-sponsored by Microsoft so that they can spread misleading labels and sell an illusion of something "open" at Microsoft. We have given many examples of this. In reality, Microsoft is helping data be locked down and away from those who wish to access it, even with Microsoft's own DRM. There are several examples of that in the British Library and the same blog from Cambridge has a new series of rants about that: [via Glyn Moody, an author who says "shame on you British Library"]

i. When the British Library “improved electronic access with DRM”

Scraped from British Library site without permission into Arcturus I have found the point in time when the British Library [changed or introduced] its DRM. I quote in full (without permission, claiming fair use) and then comment.


ii. The British Library’s Secure Electronic Delivery

* The electronic copy will be available to download from the server at the British Library for 14 days, after which the file will be deleted.

Access and Printing

You are permitted to make only one paper copy from the electronic copy. We recommend printing it out when you first download it.


iii. The British Library: Mission Impossible; I still need information

So I repeat my request for information about ILL and the BL (and local practices). I shan’t publish names if you don’t want. But if I can’t even get correct factual information then I am disappointed and disillusioned. By acquiescing to DRM for academic materials, you are bringing either 1984 or Fahrenheit451 to our future society.


iv. Campaign to liberate Information from The British Library

I am going to ascertain what these procedures are by using the freedom of information act. The University of Cambridge is required to disclose information under the freedom of information act and I shall make an inquiry to ascertain the current procedures and rules for inter library loans. I shall use whatdotheyknow.com to send a request to the University of Cambridge. This request will be public the university, by law, there is required to respond within 20 days. They reply will be public and I hope it will be informative. From this I hope to gather both what the British library is policy and regulations are and what additional regulations (or possibly removal!) Are imposed by Cambridge.


v. Would Ranganathan have approved of DRM?

If the British library had asked “would Ranganathan have approved of DRM?” I think we can guess the answer. I have no idea what the motivation of the DRM is but I do not believe it is primarily introduced to increase the take up of their material and to increase scholarship. I am absolutely certain that it contradicts the first law.


vi. The BL’s position becomes somewhat clearer but additional comments welcome

What's rather clear is that the British Library is pushing society back to analogue, urging citizens to embrace artificial limitations that put preservation too at risk. They are fighting like Luddites, even as a public institution. Given Microsoft cronies like Adam Farquhar, it is not surprising that the British Library has gone off the rails. According to Groklaw, Microsoft is involved here. As Pamela Jones put it, "Can they, for just one issue, guarantee that Microsoft will be around in 50 years? That .Net and Biztalk2004 will still work? If not, then what?"

Microsoft's patent frenzy too is an example of where the company's policies prove extremely harmful to society. How about this publisher who seeks a patent on peer review?

A scientist in Switzerland is seeking to patent a system for peer reviewing and publishing scientific papers online, Nature has learned.

Henry Markram, a neuroscientist and publishing entrepreneur who works at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, last year filed internationally for a broad patent on systems for interactive online peer review and publishing open-access journals.

The application, says Markram, was filed mainly to protect a fleet of author-pays, open-access journals published by the Lausanne-based Frontiers Media, a company he created in 2008 with his wife Kamila Markram, another neuroscientist at the EPFL.


Ridiculous. These people hold back society and put intellectual achievements (which human civilisation depends on for its survival) in jeopardy.

Recent Techrights' Posts

How Software Patents Were Viewed or Their General Status Changed Over Time
A rough summary
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims or says can be trusted
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
Datamation, Where I Used to Publish Articles, Appears to Have Been Sold to TechnologyAdvice Only to Become a Slopfarm
I'd prefer to not associate with that site anymore
 
Former Head of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Lina Khan Knows Whatever Microsoft Touches Will Die
Just like Skype (as recently as months ago) [...] When Microsoft grabs things, or when it buys things, it almost never ends well
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About LibreOffice in Austria and Wine 10.16
very short
Links 04/10/2025: "attempted Coup" Noted in Facebook, Russia Kills Journalists via Drones
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/10/2025: Anesthesia and Baudpunk
Links for the day
Links 04/10/2025: "Privacy Harm Is Harm", Criticism Outlawed in US
Links for the day
Garmin Uses Linux for Some of the Garmin Products, Now It's Sued by Strava Using Software Patents
Software patents should never have been granted in the first place
Richard Stallman Will Give a Talk in Sweden in 6 Days
Dr. Stallman, despite his battle with cancer is still alive and mentally sharp
FSF Turns 40
We'll be focusing on patent-related topics this weekend
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 03, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 03, 2025
Gemini Links 04/10/2025: Distro Hopping and "Part Time"
Links for the day
We Are Turning 19 in One Month, FSF Turns 40 in 3 Hours (CET)
For our anniversary next month we still have no concrete plans
Patent Docs (or PatentDocs) Learned the Wrong Lessons From the Death of TypePad
Had they gone ahead with an SSG, they'd become a lot more future-proof
USPTO Patent Bubble Already Imploding, After Decades of Artificial Inflation, Entire Offices Close for Good
we can deduce that financial pressures (lack of "demand" for monopolies) play a role
TikTok is Not Harmless (Being CheeTok in the US Will Advance Orange Agenda)
Social control media isn't "fun and games"; it's a digital weapon that lets hostile groups or nations infiltrate others, then turn them against themselves
Andy Farnell and Helen Plews Explain What "Modern" Tech Does to Old People
Imposing terrible tech "religion" on people is not helping them
Tomorrow the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Turns 40 and Its Web Site is Still Slow Due to DDoS by LLM Slop Bots
For an advocacy group, uptime is important (for its message to remain accessible)
Slopwatch: Google News as a Firehose of LLM Slop About "Linux"
Google News is really bad
Links 03/10/2025: "NPR’s Economics Lessons Come With Neoliberal Spin" and Canada Post at Risk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/10/2025: Panic Attacks and Food Adulteration
Links for the day
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day