03.13.09
Mike Sax and Other Microsoft Lobbyists Spin the TomTom Case in Linux Web Sites/Blogs
Summary: Reasons to be very careful about what one reads about TomTom (Microsoft-sponsored voices are abound)
SOME HOURS AGO we found inflammatory messages (such as this one) about TomTom, courtesy of known Microsoft AstroTurfers, who had already been banned from other Web sites like LinuxToday. They change their names, but the E-mails or IP addresses stay the same.
Paid Microsoft lobbying arms enter FOSS blogs, for a fact. They are spinning in favour of patent attacks against Linux. This must mean that Microsoft feels this way too and that it feels very strongly about polluting Web sites to affect public opinion. Groklaw has already remarked on the Enderle spin. But now we also find Mike Sax with the message titled “Reality Check”. Mike Sax, whose company can be found here, is an ACT guy and his ACT boss is Jonathan Zuck, a Microsoft aggressor [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. These people are being paid by Microsoft in order to spin, as is Rob Enderle [1, 2, 3]. In Enderle’s case, the payment is less direct and ACT is very busy attacking Free software at the moment.
Be careful out there. Microsoft is muddying the water. This is the company which paid people to write fake letters ‘on behalf’ of deceased citizens [1, 2]. Microsoft stole the voices of dead people in order to earn public and congressional sympathy. █
“Mind Control: To control mental output you have to control mental input. Take control of the channels by which developers receive information, then they can only think about the things you tell them. Thus, you control mindshare!”
–Microsoft, internal document [PDF]