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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."
....when he reads "The Penguin Advances" PDF linked in this article.
"In order to avoid that someone would appropriate the improvements to make a closed version, Torvalds has created a special use license that forbids the original code or any subsequent modification made upon it to be closed"
I recently commented on how the Roman Church has used effectively the over-zealous Brazilian laws on libel and difamation to fight any churches that make inroads on what they consider their home turf. Now it seems that Redmond is taking some clues from Rome.
I think that he was just commenting that Microsoft used the same approach that drug dealers do -- to give away cheap or free product to produce a dependence, and then to take advantage of that dependence.
It's hardly unreasonable or untrue (though it might well be damaging) and would be entirely legal under US law.
May we never see th
This is true and sheer genius. Dunno about Brazilian law, but this might even be usable in a US court.
May we never see th
Stuff that you'd get away with saying in the USA, you can get sued for in most other countries. US firms have picked up on this and are a lot more litigious about such things outside the US. So are American celebrities, reprint tabloid stuff outside the US at your peril. It might be safe to call a certain actor's sexuality into question in the US, but do it in Australia or the UK and you'll wind up in court. Neither country has a "right" to free speech (except for politicians protected by parliamentry privilige, who really don't want to share that privilige with their critics).
Funny thing about defamation law. You don't have to prove that you're reputation has been damaged. It is accepted that this is almost impossible to reliably prove (it isn't like Slashdot Karma). Hence the law assumes that, because you've gone to court over it, your reputation must have been damaged. Also plaintiffs do not have to pay defendant's legal bills in most countries, hence defamation is a good way for rich plaintiffs to get the little guy, because the little guy, even if what he said was true, will still have to pay sizable legal bills.
Microsoft's complaint claims that this is "an excess in freedom of speech and freedom of thought, by means of the dissemination of information."
Holy context Batman. I love how the submitter is so blatantly trying to get everyone riled up with that quote (oh no, thought crime!), when in fact that quote is actually just a direct translation of Article 12 of the Brazilian Press Law. (Microsoft is directly quoting the law when they use it in the complaint).
Correct me if I am wrong, but a few years ago Bill stepped down as CEO and became a top chairman of Microsoft? Of course he still has plenty of sway in it, but I distincly remember service and Public Relations taking a downhill fall not long after this happened.
I guess what I am trying to say, is has anyone else noticed this as well? After the CEO switch Microsoft decided to start dumping on its customers and users in a way previously unheard of in the software industry. With Microsoft allegedly funding SCO and now this, it makes me wonder what is going on behind the curtains of Microsoft. Bill was a cool guy on a personal level. A great coder, even if he has some sneaky buisness practices. But I could never -ever- see him stooping the these recent lows.
"We're breaking out the ramen noodles. . . "
"Really? Is it someone's birthday?"
Here nearly everyone uses pirated copies of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office in Home PCs.
:(
Microsoft complains with piracy to make us Windows dependent, the price of a OEM copy of Windows costs more than most of the people here uses to live for one month.
For us doesn't make any sense to pay for a OEM copy witch we will not have assistance, and almost all "normal"(non-geek) will need to pay for assistance when a virus infect windows, most of them pays for geek neighbours to reinstall a copy of pirated windows when this happens.
Of course in companies in Brazil most windows copies aren't pirated, this is the market they wants, companies and government computers.
But i'm quite happy that now we have a law here that says that open source will be always the first choice in govern departments, this is making the Microsoft President of Brazil going crazy, all declarations i've seen from him sens desperate actions.
I'm using Linux for 1 year, i still have winXP but for 8 months i didn't used it for more than 1 hour for week, i feel nice to stopped using pirated software, when people here understand that piracy isn't normal things will be better. Government actions to make Microsoft stop to learn our people to use pirated copies would be nice too.
Sorry my bad english, aspell doesn't work for everything
Actually, I think MS will have a large problem suing mr Amadeu. They can afford the lawyers and the best judge money can buy, but they can't afford the press coverage such a lasuit would generate. Many people share the views of mr Amadeu and would probably be on his side, and become even more hostile to Microsoft.
Even if Microsoft manages to buy some of the press, there is a significant risk that some website like groklaw may emerge and start digging up annoying facts on Microsoft and its business practices.
The question is will Microsoft be smart enough to realize this.
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