04.16.11

Gemini version available ♊︎

How Microsoft Florian ‘Cooks’ Spin

Posted in Deception, Microsoft, Patents at 4:24 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Witch's house

Summary: How mobbyists game the press and patterns for journalists to watch out for if they wish to avoid being deceived and exploited

In my “Inbox” I have over 100 messages from Microsoft Florian. Not all of them are personal. Florian is shy to admit this, but his operation is based on reuse of text for blog comments (he shut down comments in his own blogs after he had found them irritating) and also for E-mails, which he uses to embed his name and his often incorrect claims inside news articles. Maybe he pondered sending it to one zillion reporters, hoping that one in a zillion will give it room in a post/article. Maybe that’s how the lobbying industry works, who knows? I sure don’t. But what I do know what I was sent and I received admissions too. Here is an example of a message:

From: Florian Mueller
To: “Roy Schestowitz”
Subject: Bilski decision doesn’t invalidate even one software patent
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:53:58 +0200

(sad story… and this here is an example of my emails to journalists when news break)

Please feel free to use in your reporting on the Bilski decision any of these comments. I’m the author of the FOSS Patents blog (and founder and former director of the NoSoftwarePatents campaign) on the Bilski decision and what it means for the patentability of software.

Here are a few select quotes, and further below the URL of my posting and the complete text.

“Unfortunately, the Supreme Court delivered an opinion that doesn’t help the cause of partial or complete abolition of software patents at all.”

“[T]he court’s majority position is about the most liberal reasoning that it could have been. Only a decision to uphold the Bilski patent could have been any less restrictive.

“Simply put, the Supreme Court’s decision does not do away with even one software patent that already exists, nor does it raise the bar for the future.”

“The decision announced today makes it clear that a majority of the Supreme Court wanted to give the abolition of even only a small percentage of all software patents the widest berth possible.”

“This US decision is even more disappointing when taking into account the global trend.” [then mentions political process in New Zealand and court decision in Germany]

“The position that software patents should be abolished isn’t nearly as popular among judges and politicians as it is in the free and open source software community.”

The upcoming Defensive Patent License (DPL) is recommended at the end of the blog posting.

Here’s the URL and the full text:

Then comes ego-surfing. He can show other people how the prior mentions (which he mass-mailed for) supposedly give him credibility. It’s a chain of FUD, just like Microsoft with the FAT patent (using prior settlements to discourage re-examination).

It’s a typical recipe of “please use my quotes”; “here are samples you can use” (not exact words). I received loads of those, even after pointing out to him that he is mass-mailing while hiding it, which I did not appreciate. In fact, judging by the headers it seems like a personal message, but after a while I could see what he was up to and then he sent me this explanation:

From: Florian Mueller
To: “Roy Schestowitz”
Subject: EU launches investigation against IBM over mainframe practices
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:33:54 +0200

(this goes to multiple recipients but I didn’t want to use an undisclosed
list because of potential problems with spam filters; nor do I use a mailer
tool ;-)

[...]

Those “spam filters”, eh? They are a hindrance to lobbyists. Florian and his bully friends from Microsoft can try all they want to gag those who explain their ‘algorithm’ (Florian has not patented this lobbying algorithm/business method yet, has he?), but people deserve to know the truth.

Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • Reddit
  • email

Decor ᶃ Gemini Space

Below is a Web proxy. We recommend getting a Gemini client/browser.

Black/white/grey bullet button This post is also available in Gemini over at this address (requires a Gemini client/browser to open).

Decor ✐ Cross-references

Black/white/grey bullet button Pages that cross-reference this one, if any exist, are listed below or will be listed below over time.

Decor ▢ Respond and Discuss

Black/white/grey bullet button If you liked this post, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or join us now at the IRC channels.

A Single Comment

  1. twitter said,

    April 16, 2011 at 9:26 pm

    Gravatar

    Florian has been successful at gaming Slashdot. His smears of Groklaw and Techrights that closely followed PJ’s retirement announcement so annoyed me that I decided to see what Florian Mueller has been telling Slashdot. He managed to inject his opinion 16 times over the last year, mostly to FUD Microsoft competitors. Each of those 16 Slashdot articles represents many more Microsoft press publications. Compare the prolific bad mouthing of Red Hat, Google, IBM, RMS, the Free Software Foundation and others to his lack of concern for Microsoft. Searching his blog we find:

    No mention of Intellectual Ventures
    No mention of Nathan Myhrvold
    He mentions Microsoft’s Patent Lawyer 4 times, mostly to lead people to read Microsoft’s opinion.

    I once asked him to read my Microsoft Software Patent Extortion Timeline, and asked him why hed did not persue Microsoft and their obvious attacks on gnu/linux and software freedom. He was silent at the time. I now see he produced this lame excuse of “Microsoft’s cooperative approach to patents.” In his defense of Microsoft, he dismisses accusations that he’s a Microsoft lobbiest that can’t be trusted. Then, he tells us,

    Microsoft doesn’t use its patents in a destructive way. They don’t just sit on their patents without doing nothing, but they’re a cooperative right holder who doesn’t use them to shut out competition. … Developers, however, generally like FOSS. So I can’t see how Microsoft would go to war against the community. … there’s a pretty good chance that Microsoft’s peaceful coexistence with FOSS will continue and become ever more fruitful. … Microsoft doesn’t have that kind of problem [open washing]. … the most one can realistically expect a patent holder to do is to grant licenses on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. … License deals are generally good news … Microsoft only sued those companies because they were absolutely unwilling to do a license deal. In each of those cases, … The key thing to me is that all of those lawsuits could have been avoided easily. If Microsoft continues to use its patents in the cooperative, reasonable way it has used them so far, then I don’t think there’s a threat to FOSS projects or companies.

    This is a disgraceful defense of Microsoft’s strategy against free software. According to Microsoft email exposed in the Comes vrs Microsoft anti-trust case, it is clear that Microsoft’s goal was to impose external costs, “risks” and fear on gnu/linux users and companies. The attack was planned in 2002, executed in 2004 and continues to this day. Microsoft brags that they have netted dozens if not hundreds of license payers, companies that use software that Microsoft does not own. Florian describes this judicial extortion as “cooperative,” “fair,” “reasonable” and “non discriminatory.” I wonder if he wold feel the same way if I were to tell him that I have a patent on FUD, but I don’t want him to stop writing FUD, I just want my fair share of his compensation, 25% should do, otherwise I’ll tie him up in court for the next decade, embargo his writing in the US and EU and set a host of spinners to work on his reputation through my extensive network of technical publications, PR firms, lawyers and lobbiests. As soon as he bothers to pay, I’ll set half a dozen proxies after him. When that is someone else’s reality, he’s OK with it.

    His recent work has also cost him a lot of his reputation. People noticed he was the source of Android copyright FUD and thought poorly of it. The attacks on “Groklie,” PJ, will probably cost him more. In typical Microsoft bully fashion, he’s blaming the hit to his reputation on PJ and others who notice what he’s doing.

DecorWhat Else is New


  1. Links 30/05/2023: LibreOffice 7.6 in Review and More Digital Restrictions (DRM) From HP

    Links for the day



  2. Gemini Links 30/05/2023: Curl Still Missing the Point?

    Links for the day



  3. IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 29, 2023

    IRC logs for Monday, May 29, 2023



  4. MS (Mark Shuttleworth) as a Microsoft Salesperson

    Canonical isn’t working for GNU/Linux or for Ubuntu; it’s working for “business partners” (WSL was all along about promoting Windows)



  5. First Speaker in Event for GNU at 40 Called for Resignation/Removal of GNU's Founder

    It’s good that the FSF prepares an event to celebrate GNU’s 40th anniversary, but readers told us that the speakers list is unsavoury, especially the first one (a key participant in the relentless campaign of defamation against the person who started both GNU and the FSF; the "FSFE" isn't even permitted to use that name)



  6. When Jokes Became 'Rude' (or Disingenuously Misinterpreted by the 'Cancel Mob')

    A new and more detailed explanation of what the wordplay around "pleasure card" actually meant



  7. Site Updates and Plans Ahead

    A quick look at or a roundup of what we've been up to, what we plan to publish in the future, what topics we shall focus on very soon, and progress moving to Alpine Linux



  8. Links 29/05/2023: Snap and PipeWire Plans as Vendor Lock-in

    Links for the day



  9. Gemini Links 29/05/2023: GNU/Linux Pains and More

    Links for the day



  10. Links 29/05/2023: Election in Fedora, Unifont 15.0.04

    Links for the day



  11. Gemini Links 29/05/2023: Rosy Crow 1.1.1 and Smolver 1.2.1 Released

    Links for the day



  12. IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 28, 2023

    IRC logs for Sunday, May 28, 2023



  13. Daniel Stenberg Knows Almost Nothing About Gemini and He's Likely Just Protecting His Turf (HTTP/S)

    The man behind Curl, Daniel Stenberg, criticises Gemini; but it's not clear if he even bothered trying it (except very briefly) or just read some inaccurate, one-sided blurbs about it



  14. Links 29/05/2023: Videos Catchup and Gemini FUD

    Links for the day



  15. Links 28/05/2023: Linux 6.4 RC4 and MX Linux 23 Beta

    Links for the day



  16. Gemini Links 28/05/2023: Itanium Day, GNUnet DHT, and More

    Links for the day



  17. Links 28/05/2023: eGates System Collapses, More High TCO Stories (Microsoft Windows)

    Links for the day



  18. IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 27, 2023

    IRC logs for Saturday, May 27, 2023



  19. No More Twitter, Mastodon, and Diaspora for Tux Machines (Goodbye to Social Control Media)

    People would benefit from mass abandonment of such pseudo-social pseudo-media.



  20. Links 28/05/2023: New Wine and More

    Links for the day



  21. Links 27/05/2023: Plans Made for GNU's 40th Anniversary

    Links for the day



  22. Social Control Media Needs to be Purged and We Need to Convince Others to Quit It Too (to Protect Ourselves as Individuals and as a Society)

    With the Tux Machines anniversary (19 years) just days away we seriously consider abandoning all social control media accounts of that site, including Mastodon and Diaspora; social control networks do far more harm than good and they’ve gotten a lot worse over time



  23. Anonymously Travelling: Still Feasible?

    The short story is that in the UK it's still possible to travel anonymously by bus, tram, and train (even with shades, hat and mask/s on), but how long for? Or how much longer have we got before this too gets banned under the false guise of "protecting us" (or "smart"/"modern")?



  24. With EUIPO in Focus, and Even an EU Kangaroo Tribunal, EPO Corruption (and Cross-Pollination With This EU Agency) Becomes a Major Liability/Risk to the EU

    With the UPC days away (an illegal and unconstitutional kangaroo court system, tied to the European Union in spite of critical deficiencies) it’s curious to see EPO scandals of corruption spilling over to the European Union already



  25. European Patent Office (EPO) Management Not Supported by the EPO's Applicants, So Why Is It Still There?

    This third translation in the batch is an article similar to the prior one, but the text is a bit different (“Patente ohne Wert”)



  26. EPO Applicants Complain That Patent Quality Sank and EPO Management Isn't Listening (Nor Caring)

    SUEPO has just released 3 translations of new articles in German (here is the first of the batch); the following is the second of the three (“Kritik am Europäischen Patentamt – Patente ohne Wert?”)



  27. German Media About Industry Patent Quality Charter (IPQC) and the European Patent Office (EPO)

    SUEPO has just released 3 translations of new articles in German; this is the first of the three (“Industrie kritisiert Europäisches Patentamt”)



  28. Geminispace Continues to Grow Even If (or When) Stéphane Bortzmeyer Stops Measuring Its Growth

    A Gemini crawler called Lupa (Free/libre software) has been used for years by Stéphane Bortzmeyer to study Gemini and report on how the community was evolving, especially from a technical perspective; but his own instance of Lupa has produced no up-to-date results for several weeks



  29. Links 27/05/2023: Goodbyes to Tina Turner

    Links for the day



  30. HMRC: You Can Click and Type to Report Crime, But No Feedback or Reference Number Given

    The crimes of Sirius ‘Open Source’ were reported 7 days ago to HMRC (equivalent to the IRS in the US, more or less); but there has been no visible progress and no tracking reference is given to identify the report


RSS 64x64RSS Feed: subscribe to the RSS feed for regular updates

Home iconSite Wiki: You can improve this site by helping the extension of the site's content

Home iconSite Home: Background about the site and some key features in the front page

Chat iconIRC Channel: Come and chat with us in real time

Recent Posts