Home Messages Index
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Author IndexDate IndexThread Index

[News] [Rival] Microsoft Bullies Another Small Company

Avistar's Tale: Microsoft Shows Its Dark Side

,----[ Quote ]
| Whatever. Sorry, Microsoft, but you're not looking too good in this scenario. 
| This is the dark side of Microsoft, the side we've told you about in the 
| magazine, the side that brings out the critics and the haters and the 
| antitrust hounds. This is Microsoft trying to prey on a struggling company 
| that happens to have some attractive IP and litigate that company into 
| oblivion before draining its lifeblood.     
| 
| There's free-market capitalism, and then there's predatory business 
| practices. Sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish between the two, but 
| this falls into the latter category, as far as we can tell. And while we know 
| that Microsoft (along with lots of other big vendors -- most others, really) 
| is no stranger to that sort of thing, it doesn't make it any less disturbing.    
| 
| Moss said that some of the anti-Microsoft brigade has come to his aid, but 
| mostly with moral support. "We're in a bar; some guy's hitting us with a 
| baseball bat, and they're all going, 'Come on, Simon! Hit him back!'" Moss 
| said of some of his company's well-meaning allies. "That's about it. I've got 
| nothing but an ice cream cone."    
`----

http://rcpmag.com/blogs/weblog.aspx?blog=2082

Recent examples of Microsoft bullying below.


Related:

The hard side of Mister Softie

,----[ Quote ]
| Ah, Microsoft. Nothing gets the knickers of Silicon Valley startup guys more 
| twisted than signs that the world’s largest software company is over-reaching 
| again. The latest outrage? Some of my friends at the Valley’s best-known 
| social networks and Web 2.0 companies are privately grousing that emissaries 
| from Redmond are trying to “strong-arm” (their term) startups into giving 
| special treatment to Messenger, Microsoft’s (MSFT) answer to AIM and other 
| instant messaging programs.      
`----

http://techland.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/01/18/the-hard-side-of-mister-softie/


Microsoft Allegedly Bullies and Bribes to Make Office an International Standard

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft did not respond to several calls requesting comment.
`----

http://www.wired.com/software/coolapps/news/2007/08/ooxml_vote


Dutch government threatens to sideline Microsoft

,----[ Quote ]
| Proposed legislation that would mandate the use of the Open Document Format 
| (ODF) across the entire Dutch government has infuriated Microsoft. 
| 
| [...]
| 
| Microsoft Netherlands has engaged in fierce lobbying in an attempt to derail 
| the plan. The company argues that the current definition is too narrow, 
| specifically by mandating ODF rather than open standards in general  
`----

http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/12/10/dutch/index.php


Microsoft snubs own staff for outsiders

,----[ Quote ]
| According to the Wall Street Journal, Steve Ballmer is choosing aliens to do 
| work for him rather than rely on Vole staffers. 
`----

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/09/26/microsoft-snubs-own-staff


Microsoft trying to derail Google/DoubleClick deal by lobbying congress

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has hired lobbying firm Patton Boggs LLC to do work on "competitive 
| issues surrounding Google/DoubleClick [sic] merger." 
`----

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070816-microsoft-spends-40000-to-lobby-congress-about-googledoubleclick-merger.html


Q&A: Former Mass. CIO feels 'bittersweet pride' after battles with Microsoft,
legislature

,----[ Quote ]
| As CIO of Massachusetts from February to November last year, Louis 
| Gutierrez had to endure most of the brunt of Microsoft Corp.'s political 
| wrath over a state policy calling for the adoption of the Open Document 
| Format for Office Applications, or ODF -- a rival to the software vendor's 
| Office Open XML file format.
| 
| [...]
| 
| Do you see any reason for there to be two standards? If you were
| starting blank-slate, there certainly would not be value to creating
| two separate standards. Over time, it has sometimes been useful to
| have the competition of two standards to keep both sides honest.
| But I don't see particular value in the long-term co-existence of
| two separate standards.
`----

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9012760&source=rss_news50


,----[ Quote ]
|    Quinn:  Almost to a person, to anybody involved or who knows about
|    the ODF issue, they attributed the story to Microsoft, right, wrong
|    or otherwise. Senator Pacheco may be a bully but I do not believe he
|    is disingenious and would stoop to such a tactic. Senator Pacheco and
|    Secretary Galvin's office remain very heavily influenced by the
|    Microsoft money and its lobbyist machine, as witnessed by their
|    playbook and words, in my opinion.
| 
|    Quinn:  I believe that the ODF decision will stand. I believe MS
|    will continue to do anything and everything it can to stop it. And I
|    know my seat wasn't even empty and they (MS) took another shot at
|    the title, to no avail. This horse is out of the barn and I see no
|    way for it to go back in. Remember, all we are asking for was and is
|    for Microsoft to commit to open and the standards process; so
|    everyone looks really bad if the plug gets pulled at this juncture. 
`----

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060119232859729


MA Governor-Elect Names MS Anti-ODF Lobbyist to Technology Advisory Group

http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20061128161343183


[???] Microsoft To Fine Retail Stores $250,000 For Offering XP

,----[ Quote ]
| If we even mention the fact that we carry the model with XP preloaded to a 
| Microsoft secret shopper the store will be fined by Microsoft for $250,000 
| dollars. So even though we offer a PC with XP Pro we are not allowed to tell 
| you we do out of fear that Microsoft will fine us for 1/4 of a million 
| dollars.    
`----

http://nomad1984.blinkinblog.com/microsoft-to-fine-retail-stores-250000-for-offering-xp.html


Microsoft sues Immersion for contract breach

,----[ Quote ]
| We entered into a binding licensing agreement with Immersion and are seeking 
| to have that agreement honored," Microsoft Associate General Counsel Steve 
| Aeschbacher said in a statement. "Microsoft licenses technology both in and 
| out and relies on these agreements to be honored and enforced. Our request to 
| the court is that all companies and industry partners should play by the same 
| rules and that the binding agreement we signed with Immersion be honored."     
`----

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9730964-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20


"Human Greed Has No Bounds," Says MSFT in Fee Dispute

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft, he adds, is "seeking to punish counsel that has cost them a lot 
| of money by increasing [the settlement] value to Wisconsin class members."
`----

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2007/03/14/fee-fight-involving-microsoft-breaks-out-in-wisconsin/
http://tinyurl.com/yptw58


Patent threats bad for Microsoft business - Red Hat

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft going around threatening customers with patent litigation does 
| not make good business sense. This is according to Red Hat's Middle 
| East and Africa channel sales manager, David Postel, who was speaking 
| in Johannesburg last week.
`----

http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?src=rss&id=1594


Micro$oft continues bullying for intellectual property licenses.

,----[ Quote ]
| These moves have excalated from private lawsuits against individuals to 
| open hostility against the world of free software and most recently, 
| to inking cross-licensing (i.e.: "protection") agreements.
| 
| All of this is, naturally, under the guise of "improving 
| interoperability" between software products. 
`----

http://www.mywesttexas.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18486567&BRD=2288&PAG=461&dept_id=475590&rfi=6#08310989284596593909
http://tinyurl.com/34u7eo


US politicians go to bat for Microsoft

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/26/microsoft_eu_political_lobbying/

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Author IndexDate IndexThread Index