Microsoft and FUD, together again
In an article titled Why IP Owners Should Worry Melanie Wyne, whose bio reads ” Melanie Wyne is executive director of the Initiative for Software Choice, a global coalition run by the Computing Technology Industry Association.” tries to tell us why we should worry about open standards and choice. First, let’s look at this Initiative. From their website:
The Initiative for Software Choice is a growing global coalition of large and small companies committed to advancing the concept that multiple competing software markets should be allowed to develop and flourish unimpeded by government preference or mandate.The Initiative actively educates policymakers and regulators worldwide about the benefits of this approach.
Sounds fairly harmless right? Wrong. “advancing the concept that multiple competing software markets should be allowed to develop and flourish unimpeded by government preference or mandate. Boy, does that sound like it’s right up Bill Gates alley, “just let me sell software and don’t bother me about monopoly laws.”
Plain and simple this article is about trying to make free to read and edit in whichever software allows you to illegal. It’s about calling Microsoft Office the standard and you can use it as long as you don’t break patent and copyright laws or the DMCA to do it. Oh yeah, and upgrade when we tell you to because you won’t be able to read that new document with your old office suite – never mind that the suite is $800 a pop.
What Bill and Co. do is like making a “new” kind of paper that you can’t read with your “old” eyes – one that requires expensive eye surgery even when you have 20/20 vision. OpenDocument is a “new” standard, but it’s (almost) like the web; if your old program (browser) can read it why buy a new one when a few people change their web sites?
