On Wednesday 09 March 2005 06:54, SigmaX wrote: <snip> > Back to the original title, "Microsoft overrules EU Council", is > there really any evidence that Microsoft had anything resembling > a direct influence in the matter? Or was it just the assumtion > of an M$-dispising soule that anything resembling buisness + > money + evil must be of M$. </snip>
Very good evidence. During a "friendly" visit to Danish Prime Minister Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen in February, Mr. Gates threatened to close down his Navision branch here if Denmark didn't support the EU Software Patents Directive. http://www.computerworld.dk/default.asp?Mode=2&ArticleID=27060 It's in Danish, but I guess Google can translate it for you. As it turned out, the blackmail was successful : although our Parliament mandated the Sec.Trade, Mr. Bendtsen to demand the EU Council take the matter off the agenda, he didn't. Public scandal over here. Mr. Bendtsen will have to come out with some very good explanations next week, being subjected to a hearing in Parliament. So far, the Patents Directive stands. You can read a lot more here : http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20050308084230867 In English, that is. Kaj Haulrich. -- *sent from a 100% Microsoft-free workstation* * http://haulrich.net * *Running Linux (Mandrake 10.1) - kernel 2.6.8*
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