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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."
"...for offering the operational system Windows..."
Calling windows "operational" HAS to be a crime somewhere.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
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!
I hereby designate Microsoft's lawsuit Operation Footbullet.
P.S.
Maybe Brazil will even fix the broken law.
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Really, if someone calls you on your business practices because they're considered nasty... is the best reaction to threaten them?
To be fair, I don't think MS could win this particular battle - almost any business would be willing to deep discount (or offer for free) the first wave of their product to land a long term contract...
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!
for those who are PDF challenged, please if you are an author and content is worth more than presentation, use text/html if its published on the internet
The Complaint
PINHEIRO NETO LAW FIRM
To the Honorable Judge of Law from the Criminal Court of the District of Barueri, State of
Sao Paulo.
MICROSOFT INFORMATICA LTDA, a company duly incorporated and existing
according to the laws of Brazil, with its headquarters at the City of Sao Paulo, at Avenida das
Nacoes Unidas 12901, Torre Norte, 27 th floor, enrolled under the taxpayers list under
number 60.316.817/ 0001-03, by means of its legal representative (Document number 01) and
undersigned lawyers, respectfully files before this court and against SERGIO AMADEU
DA SILVEIRA, Brazilian citizen, President of the National Institute of Information
Technology (ITI), with headquarters at SCN Quadra 04 Bloco B Pétala D, room 1102,
Edificio Centro Empresarial Varig, CEP 70710-500, Brasilia, DF, the following
DEMAND FOR EXPLANATION
on the grounds of Article 25 of the Federal Statute 5,250 of February 1967 -"The Press
Law", for the reasons and motives explained below:
I-On the exclusive jurisdiction of this Honorable Court to Receive, Process and Decide the
Present Demand for Explanation
1. Under the express provisions of article 42 of the Press Law, which is mandatory, the
jurisdiction to receive, process and decide the Demand for Explanation is that of the place
where the newspaper or periodical, in this case, the place where the magazine Carta Capital,
was printed. Said magazine published the article which the Plaintiff deems as incriminated.
See below:
Article 42 Ð "The place of the violation, for determining Territorial Jurisdiction, will
be that where the newspaper or the periodical was printed, and that of the place where
the studio of the permitted or conceded radio station is located, as well as the main
place of business of the news agency.
Sole Paragraph Ð Press Crimes are subject to the provisions of article 85 of the
Criminal Procedure Code.
2. The precedents of our Courts are uncontroversial in ratifying the provisions of the Especial
Law, according to the following decisions listed in the law reviews: JUTACRIM 68/ 181; 67/
225; 78/ 412; RT 555/ 343; 559/ 379; 556/ 315; 578/ 361; 656/ 269; 603/ 365 etc.
3. According to the administrative information of the abovementioned magazine, it is printed
at Avenida Marcos Penteado Ulhoa Rodrigues, 700, Santana de Parnaiba/ SP, Plural Editora e 1
1 Page 2 3
Grafica, in the district of Barueri.
4. For this reason, this Court must process and decide the present Demand for Explanation.
II -On the Facts
5. On March 17, 2004, the Magazine Carta Capital published under the title "The Penguin
Advances" a jornalistic article about the growing of private companies which would start to
adopt free software, and about the intention of the federal government to launch an
advertising campaign in favor of this type of software.
6. In this jornalistic article, Mr. Sergio Amadeu, Defendant herein, in the exercise of his
public duties of President of the National Institute of Information Technology (ITI), aiming at
disseminating free software among Ministries, State owned companies and governmental
bodies, made aggressive declarations lacking any kind of technical foundation about the use
of the software developed by Microsoft, Plaintiff herein.
III. On the References and Comments made to the Plaintiff company by the Defendant, from
which one can infer Defamation
7. With purposes still to be clarified, the Defendant, at the condition of President of ITI, gave
an intervitew to the magazine Carta Capital, in which he makes reference and imputations of
offensive nature to the Plaintiff, using phrases and expressions from which defamation is
inferred, under the terms of the article 21 of Statute 5.250/ 67, as fo
this reminds me of a tom lehrer song where different countries want 'the bomb'
Now with Microsoft they have waged 'war' with china, the EU, netherlands, Canada, and who's next?
A google news search turns up over 120 people / companies Microsoft has sued.
So who's next, It may even be you! if the RIAA can do it why not our beloved M$
In this inadvertently hilarious google translation Microsoft Brazil says they were only asking for an explaination and were misreported. First noted by Alistair Burt on the Lessig blog.
insecurity asks the wrong question irritation gives the wrong answer
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
....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"
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
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.
Actually he's doing nothing more but saying what Bill G. has said in the past.
Here, for example:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
"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.
This is another marketing scheme by Microsoft employees to get Microsoft in the news and on Slashdot.
I certainly would never have known that a government official in Brazil compared Microsoft marketing people to "drug-dealers", if it weren't repeated in the quiet privacy of a Slashdot story.
Without a lawsuit, most Brazilians would never have heard what the official said. Now millions of Brazilians will know. What will be their reaction? Consider this. Less than two months after the September 11, 2001 bombing of the World Trade Center, at the costume parties celebrating the Brazilian equivalent of Halloween, many Brazilians came as Osama bin Laden. Brazilians and people from other countries think that the U.S. government is arrogant and out of control. Since 3 movies and 35 books published in the U.S. say this too, it can be said that the feeling is strong. Microsoft's legal action will be seen as more arrogance from the United States, probably.
My guess is that it is likely that this new move by Microsoft will only help sell Bill Gates Halloween masks. It certainly won't help sell Microsoft products.
IANAL, but when a lawyer in Brazil wants to prosecute someone for libel, s/h/it must ask first for an "explanation". The accused is then given a chance to say "I was misunderstood, sorry about that", before being actually found guilty and sent to jail. There are different levels of libel and difamation. "Calúnia" is saying something that can be proved to be false about someone. "Injúria" is saying something that may be true, but is derogatory in some way. For instance, if I said "Slashdot editors don't read their own front page", this is patently true, but is offensive, so it would be a felony in Brazil.
Maybe you forget that Marcelo Tosatti, a Brazilian, is the maintainer of the Linux 2.4 kernel? Linus sure seems to trust his code.
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
To ask for a clarification formally in a court of justice, like MS did, IS the first step in a libel lawsuit in Brazil. That's the equivalent of a judge in the USA asking the defendant "you are being acused on these charges, how do you plead?"
Better mod this one down before the editors get "sued" :-)
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.
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.
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!
"Sergio Amadeu, himself, have posted a short note about Microsoft's move. It's in portuguese, of course, but here is the translation into english:
'In special response to national and international enquiries from the press, that have been supportive with the brazilian government in this unprecedented moment in which the president of an important public institution in this country suffers personally the action of those interested in keeping an hegemonic model, I come forward, after listening to my lawyers and federal solicitors, to say that the judicial provocation imposed against me is, by its own, so unusual and improper that it does not deserve any answer.
In the other hand, I'd like to register that the purchase of software that preserves the values of openness and freedom is, for the brazilian government, a subject unavoidably connected to the democratic principle. And for it have been a long and painful path to reach our current democratic developmental stage in this country, we will not walk out our fight.
If democracy is a value full of ideology, it will never be an insignificant value. If democracy is a dream, it's the one dream this country will never wake up from.
The future is free.
Thanks you all for the support. '
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).
They clearly sued the wrong person over publishing an article comparing their business practices to drug dealers since after all, we have this prior statement published in the July 20th 1998 edition of Fortune "Although about three million computers get sold every year in China, people don't pay for the software. Someday they will, though. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll someday figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade." from Mr. Gates.
Can't wait for the drug dealer association to sue him for defamation for comparing them with Micosoft ;)
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?"
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).
I wouldn't say that there is no right to free speech altogether - generally, in democratic countries outside the US, generally you can advocate any kind of political ideas, but there are limitations for factual claims about concrete people and companies. (In the US, you can sue for damage compensation afterwards, as well, but in many countries, you can ban claims to stop the damage).
I think it is difficult to say what is better, both kinds of regulations have their advantages and disadvantages. Of course, any limitation of freedom of speech is regrettable, but on the other hand, it can also be important to have the possibility to stop unfair practises that consist in spreading unsubstanciated claims to harm competitors. A good example is SCO: In Germany, they are not allowed to spread allegations about the alleged copyright and licence infringement of Linux because they could not show anything to substanciate them, they had to remove these claims from their German website.
This is illegal in brazil? There's no difference between an analogy and a statement of (alleged) fact? Pretty strange methinks. So you can't have an opinion, even if it's based on data that can be verified, and use an analogy to describe your opinion. Seems like normal conversations might get a scosh weird then, how can you discuss various things there without going to court every other day?
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
There's Yet Another PetitionOnline for this story.
Yes, but the thing is -- once you use GNU/Linux, you don't *want* to use other stuff -- but that's okay, because you can download all the GNU/Linux you want for free and will always be able to do so.
You are absolutely right, and here is the key difference between GNU and Microsoft:
With Microsoft, you have customer lock-in that actively discourages and often prevents a customer from chosing another system they would otherwise prefer. Evidence of this abounds in virtually every medium one might consider, from the opinion pages of Chicago newspapers to court filings in assorted lawsuits against Microsoft brought by companies and governments large and small, to the pages of the World Wide Web. Customer lock-in is real, destructive, and most importantly to a democratic government: non-democratic (ie choice is removed).
GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, and other free software do not lock anyone in. Indeed, many free applications have been ported to Microsoft's inferior platform because people wanted to run the software and needed to keep running windows (quite probably due to customer lock-in).
The difference? With GNU/Linux you have the choice, even the choice to chose bondage to a large American corporate entity (read: run Windows). With Microsoft, you have no such choice: you are locked quite firmly in regardless of your other desires...with the only possible way out to dump Microsoft products completely.
The wisdom of such a choice is incontravertable, whether one is considering software quality, security, stability, or freedom, but that doesn't mean one has the ability to make such a choice, of one's data is already beholden to the behemoth. Even more so, now that Microsoft appears to be taking the $CO path more directly these days ("no customer, and especially no ex-customer, is safe").
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
If I say that Microsoft's is akin to those of the Maifa, that there licensing schemes are more like the fifdom taxation scheme of Ole England, and that their very existence threatens innovation and the advancement of technology, would I get sued too? I guess I'd have to say those things in a public forum, and be in the position to influence thebuing decisions on thousands, if not millions of people. Kinda like /.
If you are in the United States you are safe (not from being sued, but from losing). Truth is an absolute defense, regardless of how damaging it may be. And every word you wrote is true.
Caveate: the truth used to set you free, pre-Bush/Chaney/Rumsfeld/Rice. These days, all bets are off, domestic or foreign.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
didnt know you could get sued for stating the obvious these days.
/.
or getting sued over pointing out the truth.
wait, yes I did, that's right everyone sues someone else to hush them up or to ruin their life or to a little more cash here and there..
the man in brazil is correct bout m$, 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.
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.
I wonder what would prompt MS to sue down there for what is a realtively tame statement considering their own slanderous statements and "studies"? If it is easier to sue against lies, perhaps the Linux community should consider doing a law suit against MS for many of their statements AND their studies. They would then have to prove it in court. I wonder how IDC/Gartner/etc would handle being sued as well?
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Hi,
I had translated the official answer of Sergio Amadeu to the press regarding this issue. While there is no proccess, Amadeu received an offical judicial notification asking for an apologize in 48 hours. The original note is on the site of the CIPSGA, a local NGO commited to free software. There are other related news on CIPSGA site as well, including a microsoft answer (I will not loose my time translating that - use the fish).
Notice to the Press- Sérgio Amadeu
In attention to the national and international press demand, which supports the brazillian government in this moment without precedent in History, in which the director of an important puclic institution in this country sufferes personally the action of those interested in keeping an hegemonic model, write, after hearing my lawyers, state that the justice act enacted against me is, in itself, so unexpected and outrageous, that it doesn't deserve an answer.
On the other hand, I'd like to state that the contraction of software preserving the values of freedom and opennes fis, for the Brazilan Governent, a question linked to the very core of the democratic principles. And why a long and painfull path has passed for we to get at the current status of democraticy on this Country, we shall stand firm in our fight.
If democracy is a value filled with ideologies, it is never an insgnificant factor. If democracy is a dream, it is a dream from which this Country will nerver wake again.
The future is free.
SÉRGIO AMADEU DA SILVEIRA
Diretor-Presidente
Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia da Informação
-><- no
- It gave in the Land: Microsoft clarifies asked for of explanation the director of the ITI
Now we need to hear what Amadeu has to say.Editoria: Governments
18/Jun/2004 - 09:44
The Microsoft emitted a note today where he clarifies the episode of the explanation order that the company made Sergio Amadeu of the Silveira, president of the National Institute of Technology of Information (ITI). In interview to the magazine Capital Letter in the March month, Amadeu said that the company used "tactics of the gratuitous dealers" when supplying softwares programs of digital inclusion, what it would be a way to accustom the users.
The explanation order generated rumors of that the Microsoft would be processing managing of the ITI. It reads to follow the complete one of the note of the Microsoft, signed for Rinaldo Zangirolami, General Director of Legal and Corporative Subjects of the Microsoft Brazil:
Note of clarification
"we are not processing nobody, and the order of explanations is not related to a personal question.
The Microsoft continues engaged with a respectful and opened dialogue with the government, customers and the industry to address the necessities of the Brazilian economy and the community.
The Microsoft is present in the country has 14 years more than. Our commitment with the country is of long stated period. By means of ours 10,000 partners, 45,000 jobs are generated in Brazil and more than R$ 1 billion is collected in taxes annually.
Rinaldo General Managing Zangirolami of Legal and Corporative Subjects Microsoft Brazil"
Source: Land Computer science
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.