[spectre] call to EU citizens to stop Bill Gates

[Geert Lovink]

from: http://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl/2010/04/02/gambling-with-open-a-how-bill-gates-made-money-moment/ 
:

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sOXb3O9I_0
Bill Gates is to new media as Rupert Murdoch is to old media–an  
atavistic force of economics, mad gambling, and vector misdirection.

Beyond my undying desire to share TNT’s Pirates of Silicon Valley with  
everyone I know, I am sharing this video to put eyes onto Bill Gates’  
sharkiness. The man is a ruthless, underhanded animal when it comes to  
profit and market control. So when I read that key elements of policy  
regarding a European Union commitment to open source and open  
standards is at stake in the EU’s Digital Agenda, I already knew who  
was behind it before reading this tweet from David Hammerstein, ex- 
Member of European Parliament for the Greens:

‘SOS to everyone as sources confirm that Kroes is about to eliminate  
“open standards” policy from EU digital agenda; Kroes has been under  
intense lobbying pressure from Microsoft to get rid of  
interoperability and open source goals of EU.’

Further confirmation of my suspicions appears in a ComputerWorld  
article on the issue:

According to people with good contacts to the politicians and  
bureaucrats drawing up the Agenda, Microsoft is lobbying hard to  
ensure that open standards and open source are excluded from that  
policy – and is on the brink of succeeding in that aim.

Without a EU citizenship, there is little I can do besides call  
attention to the fact that Microsoft is trying to hardball another  
government into maintaining the M$ business model and, by extension,  
their position as owners of the most common formats. Please, if you  
care about this and have an EU citizenship, fill in your comments in  
the online survey, online until 6 April.

John Haltiwanger