Gates tried to Blackmail Danish Government 774
mocm writes "The Inquirer has a story about how Bill Gates tried to pressure the Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen into accepting the European Union's proposed directive on software patents by threating to terminate the 800 jobs at Navision, which had been acquired by Microsoft." Update: 02/16 00:41 GMT by T : cfelde points out a CNET story which says that "The European vice president of Microsoft Business Solutions, Klaus Holse Andersen, denied on Tuesday that the jobs at Navision were ever at risk." Believe who you'd like.
Hmmmm (Score:5, Funny)
Herr Rasmussen... (Score:5, Funny)
You've got a lot of jobs there, Prime Minister (Score:5, Funny)
Blackmail? (Score:3, Funny)
Inigo Montoya [imdb.com]: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
soon to be fixed (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Not blackmail (Score:3, Funny)
Po-tay-to, po-tah-to.
Here's a thought (Score:5, Funny)
Devil? (Score:1, Funny)
Now what did the Danish prime minister do to deserve such a name?
Re:You've got a lot of jobs there, Prime Minister (Score:5, Funny)
Balmer: Fires happen, Prime Minister.
Gates: Things burn.
Prime Minister: Look, what is all this about?
Gates: My partner and I have got a little proposition for you, Prime Minister.
Obligatory Simpsons Scene (Score:5, Funny)
HOMER
Oh, they have the Internet on computers now!
MARGE
Homer, Bill Gates is here.
HOMER
Bill Gates?! Millionaire computer nerd Bill Gates! Oh my god. Oh my god. Get out of sight, Marge. I don't want this to look like a two-bit operation.
Marge groans and rolls her eyes. Bill Gates and two "associates" enter.
GATES
Mr. Simpson?
HOMER
You don't look so rich.
GATES
Don't let the haircut fool you, I am exceedingly wealthy.
HOMER
(quietly to Marge) Get a load of the bowl-job, Marge!
GATES
Your Internet ad was brought to my attention, but I can't figure out what, if anything, CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet does, so rather than risk competing with you, I've decided simply to buy you out.
Homer and Marge step aside to talk privately.
HOMER
This is it Marge. I've poured my heart and soul into this business and now it's finally paying off. (covering his mouth) We're rich! Richer than astronauts.
MARGE
Homer quiet. Acquire the deal.
HOMER
(to Gates) I reluctantly accept your proposal!
GATES
Well everyone always does. Buy 'em out, boys!
Bill Gates companions begin to trash the "office".
HOMER
Hey, what the hell's going on!
GATES
Oh, I didn't get rich by writing a lot of checks!
Bill Gates lets out a maniacal laugh. Homer and Marge cower in the corner as the room continues to be trashed.
So we're not good enugh no? (Score:1, Funny)
Ballmer has seen the future, and it's Danish
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/13/w
TORONTO--Steve Ballmer says there is a simple way to turn around Microsoft's money-losing enterprise applications business--make the whole world like Denmark.
http://news.com.com/Ballmer:+Nothing's+
Re:Not blackmail (Score:3, Funny)
Po-tay-to, po-tah-to.
Mash 'em, boil 'em, stick 'em in a stew?
Dead Patent-Law Sketch (Part 1) (Score:5, Funny)
Here's something I wrote the other day, which seems particularly appropriate now this story has come out:
The Cast:
A `customer' (with brown envelopes and chequebook aready) enters the €C in Brussels.
Mr. Gates: 'Ello, I wish to register a complaint.
(The commisioner does not respond.)
Mr. Gates: 'Ello, Miss?
Commissioner: What do you mean "miss"?
Mr. Gates: I'm sorry, I have a cold. I wish to make a complaint!
Commissioner: We're closin' for lunch.
Mr. Gates: Never mind that, my lad. I wish to complain about this patent law what I purchased not two years ago from this very office.
Commissioner: Oh yes, the, uh, the computer-implemented inventions one...What's, uh...What's wrong with it?
Mr. Gates: I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my lad. 'E's dead, that's what's wrong with it!
Commissioner: No, no, 'e's uh,...he's resting.
Mr. Gates: Look, matey, I know a dead patent law when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now.
Commissioner: No no he's not dead, he's, he's restin'! Remarkable law, idn'it, ay? Beautiful sophistory and ambiguity!
Mr. Gates: The anbiguity don't enter into it. It's stone dead.
Commissioner: Nononono, no, no! 'E's resting!
Mr. Gates: All right then, if he's restin', I'll wake him up!
...
Mr. Gates: You let the European Parliament kill 'im, didn't you!
Commissioner: I never!!
Mr. Gates: Yes, you did!
Commissioner: I never, never did anything...
(Mr. Gates takes patent law out of briefcase and thumps it on the desk. Throws it up in the air and watches it plummet to the floor.)
contd...(due to limit on post size)
Re:Not blackmail (Score:5, Funny)
But stay away from Russia, where the taters eat you...
This post is likely going to get modded Offtopic. I blame you.
Re:Here's a thought (Score:1, Funny)
Dead Patent-Law Sketch (Part 2) (Score:5, Funny)
The Sketch (contd...)
Mr. Gates: Now that's what I call a dead patent law. The JURI is no longer out on that patent law...its most definitely deceased.
Commissioner: No, no.....No, 'e's stunned!
Mr. Gates: STUNNED?!?
Commissioner: Yeah! 'E was stunned by all the public backlash! Patent laws stun easily, major.
Mr. Gates: Um...now look...now look, mate, I've definitely 'ad enough of this. That patent law is definitely deceased, and when I purchased it not two years ago, you assured me that its total lack of movement was due to it bein' tired and shagged out following prolonged internal diplomacy.
Commissioner: Well...uhhh...we prefer to do things dead slow and sure like in the EU!
Mr. Gates: Well...the dead bit is most certainly right. Look, why did it fall flat on his back the moment I got home last time? I never had these problems with Congress...
Commissioner:Remarkable patent law, id'nit, squire? Lovely contradictions and those beautiful convoluted sentences!
Mr. Gates: Look, I took the liberty of examining that patent law when I got it home, and I discovered the only reason that it had got as far as it had in the first place was that no one had actually READ it.
(pause)
Commissioner: Well, o'course they don't! They're not payed enough for that...at least they are, but we pay 'em NOT to read 'em. That's the trick, you see. Trust me...that patent law will fly straight through as an A-item in the fisheries committee...just like...a parrot, sir...you know parrots love a bit of fish...the great thing is, sir, that the ministers and MEPs avoid it like the plague on account of it stinkin' to 'igh 'eaven...
Mr. Gates: Never find how 'igh your damn committee stinks, this patent law wouldn't fly through your committee if you put four million volts through every minister present! 'E's bleedin' demised!
Commissioner: No no! 'E's just a li'l slow!
Mr. Gates: 'E's not slow! 'E's passed on! This patent law is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! 'E's pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked thebucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-PATENT LAW!!
(pause)
Commissioner: Well, I'd better replace it, then. (he takes a quick peek round the back) Sorry squire, I've had a look 'round the back , and uh, we're right out of patent laws.
Mr. Gates: I see. I see, I get the picture.
Commissioner: I got a HIPC initiative. Uhhh...your good...ummm...friend, Mr. Brown had this idea you see but he hasn't got the means...
(pause)
Mr. Gates: (sweetly) Pray, will it take out my competitors?
Commissioner: Nnnnot really.
Mr. Gates: WELL IT'S HARDLY A BLOODY REPLACEMENT, IS IT?!!???!!?
Commissioner: N-no, I guess not. (gets ashamed, looks at his feet)
Mr. Gates: Well.
(pause)
Commissioner: (quietly) You know I thought that uhhh...spread in Teen Beat was rather good...uhhh...D'you.... d'you want to come back to my place?
Mr. Gates: (looks around) Yeah, all right, sure.
Copyright
The original dead parrot [wikipedia.org] sketch [mtholyoke.edu] was written by Graham Chapman, et. al. for Monty Python [wikipedia.org]'s Flying Circus [wikipedia.org] and is © 1989 Pantheon Books/Random House, Inc. My modification of it is co
Re:Not blackmail (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Blackmail or Extortion (Score:2, Funny)
It is definatly not blackmail, since there is no criminal act or discreditable information.
It is not extortion because the act of close the office and firing the people would not be illegal. Also it was not made in private.
It is definatly arm twisting or making a threating comment. Not sure how illegal that would be.
Um...this is Slashdot, you insensitive clod. We *need* to bash Bill Gates. Stop taking away our fun with real facts. Sheesh. Facts... Did I mention this is *Slashdot*?
Actually, since you spelled it as "definatly", you seem well aware this is Slashdot...
Clippy strikes again? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Not blackmail (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Danish government (Score:2, Funny)
Did Stalin live in Sweden or Germany?
all your danish belong to us. (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Not blackmail (Score:2, Funny)
Darth Gates (Score:5, Funny)
Just as soon as it reboots...any second now...is the Deathstar back up yet? Damned 14 year old hackers!
Re:Danish government (Score:1, Funny)
Yet another display of the supreme quality of topographical knowledge of the average US-ian.
Re:Also covered by Groklaw (Score:3, Funny)
I knew that RMS always wanted to name Linux as GNU Linux, but now he claims to have created Linus Torvalds?
Re:Hmmmm (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Obligatory Simpsons Scene (Score:0, Funny)
Re:Danish government (Score:3, Funny)
in slashdot speak (Score:2, Funny)
CEO Ballmer: I have your approval to proceed, then my lord?
Chairman Gates: Proceed. Wipe them out . . . All of them.
Re:Two minutes hate time already? (Score:5, Funny)
Chuck
Re:Obligatory Simpsons Scene (Score:5, Funny)
Well, you have a president; that's pretty stupid-sounding.
Hang on, I don't think that's what I meant. Let's get rid of the colon....
Well, you have a president that's pretty stupid-sounding.
That's more like it.
Re:Not blackmail (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Blackmail or Extortion (Score:2, Funny)
> Many writers choose to work in a carribean
> island. This has absolutely no effect on the
> way their books are protected in US (by US law)
> or EU (by EU directives or national law).
It is a reasonable point, but I am still not convinced.
Although it may be legitimate for MS to use plant location as a prod on this issue even apart from whether the location of the developers makes a difference (as when someone might refuse to do business with a store whose management supports a cause they don't like), I'll stick to the issue of whether it does make a difference.
Furthermore, I think that the ethics in this situation depend on MS's perception that they have a legitimate business reason to prefer to develop software where patent protection is available, it is legitimate to act in accord with one's beliefs about business success, even if those beliefs are wrong.
So it isn't enough to say that it doesn't matter, or even to prove that it doesn't matter. What counts is whether MS believes that it doesn't matter.
In any case, I think that your claim rests on a quirk of copyright law, which is that the entire matter being protected is publicly available and entails no base of knowledge or expertise that resides with the author alone, apart from the published material.
But copyright law alone cannot be the issue, because the EU does (AFAIK) allow software to be copyrighted. So I think the issue is the underlying knowledge and expertise rather than some published expression. I think that the issue is that MS wants to create a barrier to competition by protecting a body of expertise that it has allocated resources towards developing or otherwise acquiring. The protection could include a combination of copyright, patent, trade secret, and contract protections.
If MS spends $X to develop a body of expertise, that is then available to competitors at $0, then this clearly puts MS in a bad competitive position.
The protection doesn't have to be perfect, but it is better if it is more expensive to overcome. One way for another company to obtain the expertise might be to hire the developers. This could be an illegal strategy in areas where intellectual property is protected, and would likely be more expensive for others if it involved expatriation of the developers.
So I don't think that it is, in all cases, immaterial what the laws are where the software is developed.
In other cases, a complex interplay of the various protections could be involved. I am wondering if it might be the case that a software patent could be necessary, but not sufficient, to develop a complete competing product.
For example, a software patent could protect a way of delivering licensed media. The license to use the server software could include access to cryptographically secured and traceable keys, but could restrict trading those keys with areas that did not respect the patents. Media players worldwide might be able to play the media, but the content might, because of the restrictions on servers, have to originate in a nation that respected the patents. A knock-off system could exist in a country that did not respect the patents, but it wouldn't be able to deliver content worldwide, since it would exclude areas where the knock-off client software infringed the patents.
The point here is that the different components of intellectual property protection might work together to make knowledge of the algorithm less useful in areas where the license to the other components was unobtainable, and yet the patent protection could make license protection workable in other areas.