p2pnet - rss feed: Gates blackmailed Danish gv’ment
p2pnet.net News:- Microsoft boss Bill Gates threatened to kill 800 Danish jobs if Denmark opposed the European Computer Implemented Inventions Directive, reports today’s Danish financial daily Børsen, quoted by NoSoftwarePatents.com.
“On Thursday (17 February), the European Parliament’s Conference of Presidents is widely anticipated to support the request of its Legal Affairs Committee to restart the entire legislative process on the software patent directive,” says the site.
“The request will then be communicated by the President of the EP to the European Commission, which has to decide on how to proceed. The EU Council originally also planned to formally adopt its ‘Common Position’ that day but has had to postpone plans due to resistance by some country governments and national parliaments.
“This month, three parliaments have already spoken out against the Council’s proposal, and a fourth one (the German Bundestag) is scheduled to follow suit on Thursday evening.”
According to Børsen, last November Gates told Danish pm Anders Fogh and two ministers that he’d kill all 800 jobs in Navision, a Danish company acquired by Microsoft in 2002, unless the EU quickly decided to legalize software patents through the directive.
“Denmark is a country with only 5 million inhabitants and a relatively small high-tech sector to which the loss of 800 jobs would have significant implications,” says NoSoftwarePatents.com, going on:
“It would not be the first threat of its kind. A group of large corporations including Philips is reported to have previously threatened European governments to outsource all of their European software development jobs to low-wage countries unless the EU were to allow patents on software through the directive that is currently being worked on.
“Hans Streng, chief executive of Philips’ software division, was quoted by Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad in the summer for publicly making the threat in question.”
In January, Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported on a letter addressed by the Polish subsidiaries of Siemens, Nokia, Philips, Ericsson and Alcatel to Polish prime minister Marek Belka, says the story.
The exact content wasn’t divulged, but it was said to have indicated the companies would re-think making investments in Poland if the Polish government continued its ”resistance” to the legalization of software patents in the EU.
“It’s utterly despicable to use the basis of people’s livelihood for a disgusting threat”, says Florian Mueller, manager of the pan-European NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign.
“If you threaten with causing damage that has no factual connection whatsoever, then it’s blackmail. Plain and simple.”
Mueller says the China Business Daily recently reported on the high patent output of Philips’ plant in Shanghai, continuing:
“Companies like Philips don’t want software patents to protect the work of their European employees against Asian imitators. Quite the opposite: They want patents on software they develop in Asia, and then want to use those patents against Europe’s small and medium-sized enterprises.”
NoSoftwarePatents.com says it’s against the legalization of software patents and is independent of political organizations and parties.
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See:-
800 Danish jobs - LEADING DANISH NEWSPAPER BØRSEN REPORTS ON THREATS BY MICROSOFT’S GATES AGAINST DANISH PRIME MINISTER RASMUSSEN, NoSoftwarePatents.com, February 15, 2005
February 15th, 2005 at 8:13 pm
The heartless thugs begin to show their true face… this is counterproductive, and shows how frustrated IP extremists are becomming as the reform movement takes hold in europe.
This should follow shortly in the US.. I think the re-election of the bush administration has pushed it off 4 years.
February 15th, 2005 at 8:32 pm
fucking microsoft…. fuck >_< you bastards!! how dare you do that to another country…
Denmark, just ignor them… there are a lot better ways to deal with those bastards than to give into them…
February 15th, 2005 at 10:01 pm
This a new new all time low even for Microsoft. Before they justed builed business, which is wrong but now they are builing every day people and the food on the table. This is sick, evil and twisted!
As such I have now decied to put links on NoSoftwarePatents.com on my o/s software.
Before this I did like the idea of software patents but agreed with the idea. Now I am totaly agenst the idea of software patents.
February 16th, 2005 at 2:33 am
It appears that (coming really close to) monopolizing the US just isn’t enough for you. But why not just bribe the government politicians rather than using the lives of citizens to get your way? Oh, wait, I believe you do that here, both with money and citizens (Senators hate having layoffs, kills re-election).
February 16th, 2005 at 3:40 am
Sheesh, it is not blackmail, it’s called business.
According to wikipidia…
Blackmail is threatening to reveal substantially true information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a monetary demand or “favor” is met. This information is usually of an embarrassing or damaging nature. As the information is substantially true, revealing the information is not criminal, the crime is demanding money to withhold it. In other instances, the blackmail may be threatening or damaging to one’s reputation even without evidence; so as long as, the act of blackmail produce the desired result.
All Bill said was “Without these tools we cannot do business here.” The fact that they have the option to business elsewhere gives them the options.
Businesses all over the world play the “we will be forced to take our business elsewhere” card all the time during negotations.
Jorgie
February 16th, 2005 at 7:04 am
“Exploitation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
In political economy, economics, and sociology, exploitation usually does not include simple theft, since the latter is not a persistent economic or social relationship, as when a pimp “exploits” his prostitute. Rather, exploitation involves some persistent aspect of the socioeconomic system, an institution. This corresponds to one ethical conception of exploitation, that is, the treatment of human beings as mere means to an end — or as mere “objects”. In different terms, “exploitation” refers to the use of people as a resource, with little or no consideration of their well-being.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploitation
It this clear and explicit enough?
February 16th, 2005 at 9:07 am
Make shore that every UNION know about this blackmail that Gates has made to a nation. Work with trade union’s and help them to stop using Microsoft products and use Open Source software ie
Windows to Linux
MS Office to OpenOffice.Org
Do this as hits Gates where it hurts. On market share, Gates is well know for his ego.
I bet Europe will be lot hard upon M$ at there next review of the business prataces.
Gates now who is the buily now!
February 16th, 2005 at 9:07 am
Make shore that every UNION know about this blackmail that Gates has made to a nation. Work with trade union’s and help them to stop using Microsoft products and use Open Source software ie
Windows to Linux
MS Office to OpenOffice.Org
Do this as hits Gates where it hurts. On market share, Gates is well know for his ego.
I bet Europe will be lot hard upon M$ at there next review of the business prataces.
Gates now who is the buily now!
February 16th, 2005 at 12:01 pm
Navision is a provider of shit software and overpriced buisness solutions… not some hightech facility were the nextgen technology is built. Who gives a fuck if Danish Navision disappears? I feel for the 800 employees, but seriously, they could easily find other software jobs in the region. Denmark would probably be better off without Navision.
February 16th, 2005 at 3:09 pm
The thing is, Denmark is a country with many small companies and few large ones. This means that innovation is Denmark’s long suit. It also means that the law if passed will cost Denmark a lot more than 800 jobs, because the law will inevitably stiffle innovation.
The obvious thing for the Danish politicians to do is to point this out to Bill Gates and then think thoughts about open source. Open source will be right up Denmark’s alley.
February 18th, 2005 at 10:26 am
16M XBox have been recalled.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/17/ms_xbox_recall/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4274035.stm
February 28th, 2005 at 9:18 am
pwned…
March 1st, 2005 at 7:34 pm
I think as a pre-emptive strike, Denmark should KICK Microsoft out of Denmark. It’s ONLY 800 people.
If Microsoft gets its way with patenting, MANY many more than just 800 people will lose their jobs in
Europe over the following months/years, as the big corporations sue the little guys out of existance!
The Patent system will only stop small companies from making any
products, out of fear of infringing on NON OBVIOUS patents.
I just love it, the US has the most corrupt implementation of Patenting and Copyright laws on earth,
and instead of fixing them, (because government and large corporations are getting richer and richer from it)
they are ramming it down every other country’s throat, and threatening those that refuse with sanctions,
or trade barriers, or even disrupting their economies if they don’t follow suit.
The ONLY people that agree with software patents are the US government, large US companies, and
anyone that large US corporations have managed to persuade (financially bought or extorted) to agree with it.
March 30th, 2005 at 10:04 pm
I probaly have a different opinion to all the open source fans out there.
If Microsoft has already patented software and if that is innovative then they do deserve to hold that patent. Sorry but their desktop is much easier to use for more people than open source.
This should not be a black and white issue.
Incidently whilst the hate M$ posse is out and venting, perhaps they should also stop buying Phillips, Siemons, Nokia and all the other companies that have done exactly the same threats and suggested moving base of operations to Asia if this law is not passed. Are you really going to stop buying all commercial companies products if you follow this through
Protection should be given to innovation but balance is required to ensure it does not stifle open source or smaller developers. The hate M$ crew or M$ and other commercial companies are two extremes where what is required is some common sense.
March 30th, 2005 at 10:08 pm
Welcome to the big bad commerical world. That’s life or it’s communism and we all know that was never the ideal of equality either.
All of us who work are whores to commercial interests and the companies really don’t give a damn about an individual and neither do goverments - in fact most people don’t give a damn about other members of their community because their nose is too big, the color of their skin or their preferences.
Do we not support exploitation every single day by buying products, by trying to keep ahead in the rat race etc.
It’s all crap but until something better comes along like the whole human race matures (or the world ends first which is more likely) then we are stuck with exploitation of all kinds.
March 2nd, 2007 at 11:18 am
November 20th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
[…] Bill Gates Blackmailed the Danish Government Microsoft boss Bill Gates threatened to kill 800 Danish jobs if Denmark opposed the European Computer Implemented Inventions Directive, reports today’s Danish financial daily Børsen, quoted by NoSoftwarePatents.com. […]