Slashdot Mirror
Gates tried to Blackmail Danish Government
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.
That would be extortion, not blackmail.
KTHXBYE
...from heise.de (in German).
Do not be alarmed. This is only a test.
this has become standard, at least in the US. Corporations play one state against the other to gain tax breaks, increase dole payments, and other entitlements. These welfare subsidies can net a several hundred dollars of government payments per anticipated position.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Note that this story is also being covered by Groklaw, with some good commentary by Pamela Jones.
John Sauter (J_Sauter@Empire.Net)
According to dictionary.com, blackmail is defined as the extortion of money or something else of value from a person by the threat of exposing a criminal act or discreditable information.
Whereas extortion is defined as the Illegal use of one's official position or powers to obtain property, funds, or patronage.
Is it not extortion that has occured here?
A rough translation of the original Danish article is also available.
Not really. He didn't say something like "If you vote against software patents, we will terminate those jobs." He said something along the lines of we're extremely unhappy that there are no software patents in Europe. We can't "secure our rights" properly here, so we just might have to relocate that company to the USA.
Political FUD.
Do not be alarmed. This is only a test.
Meaning, he was extorting but not in way that could lead to a potential criminal charge.
Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life
As for Martha, had she tried those stunts, I'm sure that the DoJ would be happy to add bribery (maybe extortion) charges and her shareholders would've sued her to powder. There is supposed to be separation between the legislative, executive and judicial branches of govt in the US. And an independant judiciary (incl prosecutors) most everywhere else.
The little town (Vedbæk) is one of the richest (http://hjem.get2net.dk/rungsted.roklub/huse_langs _stranden2.htm) towns in Denmark. It was one of the richest before Microsoft entered (http://www.microsoft.com/danmark/jobs/vedbak.asp) , it was one of the richest before the company (http://www.sinca.com/noticia_aquiere_navision.htm l) that Microsoft bought started, and it will remain one of the richest after Microsofts leaves.
If you care to check out my other posts on the subject of EU patents, I do wonder just where Microsoft would be behind the curtains.
In the everlasting words of Bill Gates "Suprise Fuckers!".
Well, I think this is obviously a way of setting up a legal platform to kill linux (after SCO failed) by removing the last bastion of patent turf war.
We need to have out own patent office, the GNUPatent office, and get it recognised.
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
I happen to live in Denmark, and trust me, it's not the size that's the problem. The problem is that our minister of state from the once-liberal, right-wing party "Venstre" ("Left" in English, kinda confusing actually) has allowed the Danish People's Party, a bunch of rascists with close ties to the extreme right, to dictate the immigration laws in order to get their support in other areas.
Anti-immigration is nothing but rascism. Phew!
Depends on the NCO's the staff had to sign-- if the NCO allows it, then yes, the opportunity is indeed perfect.
IANADL (I am not a danish lawyer).
Typical limiting agreements that I have seen only apply when the employee leaves, not when he is fired.
Some jurisdictions even force the issue to protect the employees (at least Finland that I know of).
The danish Social Democrats just denounced Gates' threats in a press release. The social democrats control whether software patents have a majority or not in the danish parliament.
Any sufficiently advanced libertarian utopia is indistinguishable from government.
>>Stop putting all evil on Bill's shoulders. Actually it should be there. Gates, being the richest man in the world in charge of the biggest technology company in the world is in the unique position and power to influence many other sectors of the economy. This also makes him a role model. So yes the evil does rest on his shoulders just as mistakes in government are placed on the President's shoulder's even when its actually the House, Senate, Generals, or all a mix of them all really responsible. Also you're setting a strawman arguement. In this instance Gates is clearly being unethical and shows how eccentric he's getting. Bottom line his company should have been actually punished when found guilty of monopolistic practices by breaking it into pieces like Standard Oil was. But it wasn't, it just got a wrist slap showing us how corrupt our government has become because it wants his money. -- That's how powerful Gates is - he influences and bullies governments.
Nope -- we have ticks :)
Tickboxes, Tickmarks are just 'ticks'.
Amongst programmers, 'checkboxes' is understood. But if I were to tell a user to put a check in that checkbox, I'd get an odd look.
Although we do have checklists, which (oddly) are usually ticked-off. Even though the person doing the ticking would announce 'Check!'. Checkpoints are indeed 'check'points, unless you're referring to those cheque-cashing (no, not caching) shops which sometimes call themselves 'Chequepoints'.
Schoolkids will get ticks on their work, not checks.
And yes -- flashlights are torches. It's 99.9% certain that the person hearing the word will understand whether or not it's of the 'flaming' variety, based on context. That other 0.1% of the time can be quite funny/dangerous/deadly. But only to D&D players who take things too far.
What's the frequency, Kenneth?
Now, I'm not saying they DIDN'T do it, it sounds like something a business would do. But this piece of "journalism" is not enough to condemn Microsoft for anything. That is by far the poorest execuse for a news article I've ever seen and nothing in it should be taken as fact.
Fair enough, but I can assure this story is the real deal. Your danish is perhaps a little rusty, but here are some links anyway:
http://www.borsen.dk/dagens-nyheder/?ids[]=70135
http://politiken.dk/
It is worth noting, that the source for the story, is none other than Microsofts chief lawyer in Danmark, Marianne Wier, who was present at the meeting between Bill Gates and the danish Prime Minister Anders F. Rasmussen.
Actually, I'm pretty sure it's "You'll queer the deal."
IIRC European law doesn't much like NCOs because they act as a restraint of free trade.
"Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world." --U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards, speaking to the FCC's lawyer
Our prime minister has officially denied that Bill Gates supposedly "threatened" him.
http://www.borsen.dk/dn/70178 - Det har han ikke gjort på noget møde med mig. Jeg kan slet ikke bekræfte den udlægning, slet ikke. Det har vi slet ikke været inde på. Nej, siger Anders Fogh Rasmussen til Ritzau. === That he did not do in any way with me. I can cannot confirm that assertion, not at all. THat is not something we discussed. No, says Anders Fogh Rasmussen to Ritzau.
This is a translation of the article at Børsen.
The founder of the world's largest software development company, Bill Gates, is now ready to close Navision in Denmark and move the approximately 800 developers behind Denmark's largest software success to USA.
This was made clear by the Microsoft boss when he met with prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, minister of economy and business Bendt Bendtsen, and the minister of science Helge Sander in November.
The threat may become reality if parts of the IT business succeed in blocking a disputed EU directive about software patents that means the world for Microsoft to have passed. Approval of directive has repeatedly been delayed by the opponents' effective lobbying.
"If I am to maintain my development center in Denmark, the rights question must be settled. Otherwise I will move it to USA, where I can protect my rights," Bill Gates said according to Microsoft's chief legal counsel Marianne Wier, who also took part in the meeting with Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Bill Gates acquired the Danish development department that is based on the fusion of the two IT companies Navision and Damgaard for about 12 billion kroner [approx $2.1 Bn] in 2002.
It has not been possible to get prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to elaborate on how he reacted to the strong message from Bill Gates.
It's not the US...
Losing your job doesn't mean risking bankruptcy if you become sick and there are very generous social programs in Denmark to ease the transition from one job to another. I'm not saying being laid off is not a big deal but it is lower on the Richter scale. So because the Danes are less dependent on corporate largesse, they can also more easily ignore this type of corporate blackmail (albeit at the cost of higher taxes for some...)
I find The Inquirer to be humorously ironic (bordering on hypocritical) since they bash Microsoft and even refer to them as "The Vole", yet they use IIS/ASP.Net. Their Linux/FOSS articles are sparse at best, which obviously means they know squat about the subject.
He didn't just try, apparently he succeeded very well!
Yesterday I watched the Danish news on TV. They told the story as you know it and a little more. Before moving on to todays next topic, the speaker assured everyone that of course the Danish government will 'fight for the jobs', meaning acting Bill Gates puppets in EU.
Thuesday the 27th there will be a demonstration in Bruxelles against the law MS (and other very large companies) are putting on us.
It took me about ten seconds after posting for a little niggling voice at the back of my mind to tell me that I'd better check my facts. The following paragraph in my preceding post is completely wrong:
Turns out, my memory had played a trick on me and I'd swapped a couple of names. True to the classic image of SS men, Werner Best was not a good guy. In fact, he was the individual who recommended implementing the "resolution of the Jewish problem in Denmark". Although his overall behaviour with regard to occupied Denmark was lenient, he certainly was not a good guy.
The actual hero of the day was Georg Duckwitz, of the German Embassy in Copenhagen. He was responsible for matters dealing with shipping, and he gave warning of the impending operation to Danish contacts.
*sigh*
Oh well, I suppose that mess-up sort of undermines my credibility - though I do think that I should get credit for issuing an immediate correction.
In any case, this little historical quibble has no bearing on the actual matter of Fogh Rasmussen's likely response to MS strong-arm tactics. But then again, you probably don't need me to tell you that politicians tend to cave in to pressure from big business...
- Peter Ravn Rasmussen