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Microsoft Sues Brazilian Official for Defamation
The Importance of writes "Larry Lessig is reporting that Microsoft is threatening a defamation lawsuit against Sergio Amadeu, President of the National Institute of Information Technology (ITI) of Brazil, for comments he has made about Microsoft's business practices, "accusing the company of a 'drug-dealer practice' for offering the operational system Windows to some governments and city administration for digital inclusion programs. 'This
is a trojan horse, a form of securing critical mass to continue constraining the country'." Additionally, "To Amadeu, this will be a decisive year to win the 'strategy of fear, uncertainty and doubt', as he classifies the business model of Microsoft." Microsoft's complaint claims that this is "an excess in freedom of speech and freedom of thought, by means of the dissemination of information." Read a translation of the complaint [PDF] and the original article, "The Penguin Advances [PDF]." Lessig notes that this may be defamation in Brazil, but would not be considered defamation in the United States."
Suing and threatening to sue ARE NOT equal!
A blog like any other.
and saying "Linux is a cancer" is just an objective observation.
I shall go and tell the indestructible man that someone plans to murder him.
It looks to me as though the only real question MS can expect a favourable ruling on is question 6: 'Is there any logical connection and/or intention from the Defendant in tipifying (sic) the behavior of the Plaintiff as "drug dealer practice" with the subsequent expression made in the interview of "fear strategy"? '
Pretty much all of the other "questions" have fairly easy-to-respond to answers which will reflect badly on MS business practices, ie: the low-cost-of-entry and high-cost-of-maintenance, buy in haste, repent at leisure type. I don't think there's any relationship between this overall strategy and the FUD one though, they're just 2 distinct dodgy business practices that MS use [grin]
Simon.
Physicists get Hadrons!
Strange that they didn't argue it was untrue.
If I say that Microsoft's is akin to those of the Maifa, that there licensing schemes are more like the fifdom taxation scheme of Ole England, and that their very existence threatens innovation and the advancement of technology, would I get sued too? I guess I'd have to say those things in a public forum, and be in the position to influence thebuing decisions on thousands, if not millions of people. Kinda like /. .
Bring it own Bill!
Vern Seward
I yam what I yam, and dats all dat I yam!
Drug dealing goes like this:
- give away a product
- build a dependancy
- begin charging for the product
- introduce new "stronger" product
Q) How is that like anything Microsoft has ever done?
A) Microsoft has never cut their product with corn starch (that we know of).
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
In the United States, truth is an absolute defense against charges of slander or libel. This is one of the many immensely logical precepts of our legal system that most of us on Slashdot (including myself, I know) take for granted just as we criticize other aspects of the same system. Let's have a round of applause for the US in this matter, and then go right back to criticism. :)
Cheers,
Kyle
[ home ]
They are just like the linux guys who threw so much FUD at Microsoft that they've retaliated so hard against us. From the beginning, Linux guys have made their goal the destruction of Microsoft. That attitude is what I think created or exacerbated the problem we have today.
That dislike of Microsoft is a product of putting up with years of Microsoft's abuse of their customers, not because everyone suddenly decided that "OS vendors should not have names beginning with M, and everyone in such a class should be destroyed".
May we never see th
"an excess in freedom of thought"
That doesn't sound any alarms with anyone else? Are they trying to say this is literally a *thought crime*?
Holy crap.
Considering that windows comes pre-installed in most PCs, many people believe it to be "free", in the no-pay sense. It's like including a stone of crack in the school enrollment fee.
I think it's just hilarious that Microsoft seems to believe there are limits to the freedom of thought. Especially when it comes to incredibly important matters like their business model.
Someone is wrong on the Internet!
Then what am I doing studying from textbooks and writing essays? Real life may be graphical, but a wide range of employment is text based. The key is an even balance to the two, especially if the system is to be used in both settings.
Microsoft may have a difficult time with this lawsuit, because the drug dealer analogy came from Bill Gates:
"Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, but people don't pay for the software," he said. "Someday they will, though. As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade."
If Bill Gates compares his company to drug dealers, why can't a Brazilian official do so, too?
5-What does the expression proferred by the Defendant "strategy of fear, uncertainty, and doubt" referred in the article mean?
Microsoft asking what's FUD ? Priceless !
didnt know you could get sued for stating the obvious these days.
/.
or getting sued over pointing out the truth.
wait, yes I did, that's right everyone sues someone else to hush them up or to ruin their life or to a little more cash here and there..
the man in brazil is correct bout m$, they are like a drug dealer, they spread their product, and lock in customers, and stifle all competition and innovation using unfair and illegal methods.
In this case, innovation could be compared to someone cleaning up a community, which would be a hazard for a drug dealer, so the drug dealer gets friends to kill who ever tries to make the area better and make it work for them again, so their business model isnt threatened,such as how manycompanies and linux try to make innovations and bette ralternatives to windows, microsoft goes at the mand makest he market hostile for them and plays unfair because they believe they shouldnt have competition.
Unfair and illegal methods could be compared to dealer killing off anyone who sells another kind of drug, in "their territory" or those who dare offer a way for people to stop using a drug the dealer sells.
(such as them using lies and propagnda, lawsuits, slander, copyrights, etc to attack linux and all opposing forces.)
So the man is correct, and he could so use that in court, too bad he doesnt read
but I imagine him and his attornies already thought of how to back that.
But he is correct, and he pointed out ag ood anology that describes microsoft. and it pisses them off because it's going to threaten their dominance and status among another 3rd world nation that they want to con for all its worth.
IIK! The press law!
I thought that that monstrosity was wiped out along with the military dictatorship that created it! See, that law was created in 1967, during the most violent period of military dictatorship here in Brazil. It was used to shut those who were against the regime, journalists or not, and twenty years after the end of the regime, that law is back to haunt us. If Microsoft aren't drug dealers, what are they, then?
Stupidity is an equal opportunity striker.
Fellow slashdotter Bill Dog
So, the fact that brazilian law has written into it the notion of thought crimes means Microsoft's attempt to apply the definition of thought crime to its critics in a court of law an effort to declare their critics' spoken thoughts crimes doesn't represent Microsoft's stance on the issue?
Come on, spare us the Microsoft spin. Those who exploit and enforce unjust laws are no less unjust or evil themselves simply because the law itself exists and is on the books. Just ask anyone who spent the time as the wrong ethnicity at the wrong time in Iran, Iraq, Cambodia, Serbia, Spain, France, Germany, the United States, or several dozen other places.
The filing is in fact very revealing of Microsoft's mentality on the matter
This, irrespective of the truth of the assertions being made, that their ploy does indeed bear remarkable similiarity to the marketing methods of the drug cartels.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
Amadeu wasn't rignt about their business practices.
Sorry my bad english
If you and I ever try to communicate in Portuguese you will see just how unnecessary this apology was.
Interesting that M$ would use the laws of a country that allows politicos to bring charges to muzzle dissent. A lot of Americans thing Brazil is some sort of paradise. It is a nightmare of despair wrought by American neoconservative-backed strongarm politics. Yeah, you can check out the hot pussy in Rio, but you should see a favela.
Comparing it to Windows will be a moot point, since El Dorado is going to have a 40% larger code base than XP.
Comparing Microsoft to Drug dealers is a bit harsh, as far as I know a Microsoft product has never killed anyone through over use*. Although the stress of running the OS is probably enough to enduce a stroke or at the very least a heart attack in some people.
[*Disclaimer: Although i am not ruling that possibility out]
However some people may argue that there are comparisons.
Microsoft viciously guard their terriority. Any major reseller that tried to ship a system without a windows OS installed would feel the wrath of Redmond. It's just the MS way of sending Joey and the boys round.
Microsoft first offers you an OS (let's call it XP Home) this is great to begin with. It does everything you need, but one day you realise that it's just not enough. You need more. As luck would have it, there is a better[sic] version out there and all you need to do is open up your wallet.
But wait it's still not enough you need a decent word processor, perhaps a spreadsheet. You have heard about a few other suppliers, Open Source and the FSF. Should you get something from them, you don't know. MS say there "stuff" is like a cancer. You dont want that, no you better head off to MS, with your wallet wide open again, for your fix.
Don't worry they say, you are a good customer. You have done the right thing, by coming back, they have the perfect thing for you. Sure the office application is 3 times the price of the OS, but it's worth every penny. How can you afford it, you really need it though. After all there are no other options MS told you so, and they wouldnt do anything to a "good customer". You go home, get your DVD and video player and head to the pawn shop. It's still not enough, so you go back for your cooker. OMG it's still not enough, you start to search down the back of the sofa and in the pockets of your trousers. You need this, and you have to get it no matter what, if only there was a granny you could mug, that would get you the money you need.
Now you have the money, and your fix of MS product. But you are starting to have your doubts, the product seems impure. Every week you see your other MS using friends come down with some type of illness. Some of them even lost it all, and had to re-install. But it's just must be them, there is no way your friend and supplier would sell you anything that was less than 100% .
Then it happens, something goes wrong. You panic, call your dealers tech support. Don't worry they say, there is a problem but it's not our fault. You see it's these nasty people, they dont like us, so they try to attack us, (and they are clever). There is a solution they tell you, go to this address. Oh bring some ID cos they can't give this out to everyone. When you get there they will supply you with some packages. Install them, about you will be fine.
But your not happy, you decide to change supplier. You tell your original supplier this. Don't go they say you are making a mistake. Ours is a better product. No you insist you want to break the habit. Hold on they say, how about they reduce the cost of the product.......
What is CSSRepublic
Astounding how such news breaks on this very day that marks the anniversary of a historic event when another country in a nearby place in Latin America tried to show how imperialism often backfires (even quite literally) on its proponents.
No one would wish for Brazilian politicians to resort to firing squads (where an army of penguins -and lawyers- will do), but this strange coincidence should serve as a surefire warning for emperors of any kind not to defy their companies' destiny by forcing products and business models down someone's throat where entire countries reject them:
"You're not welcome here" is a message loud and clear...