As the SOPA battlefront in the copyright war continues to heat up, open-source advocates appear to have found an unlikely ally in Microsoft:
It's little surprise that Web-based companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter oppose SOPA, which is designed to make allegedly piratical Web sites virtually disappear from the Internet. They, and many civil liberties and human rights groups, worry that SOPA could jeopardize legitimate Web sites too.
But Redmond's skepticism is notable because unlike the Web companies, Microsoft earns nearly all of its revenue by licensing software--which can, of course, be pirated--and loses money on Bing and its online services division. What's even more telling is that Microsoft had enthusiastically endorsed a narrower version of the copyright bill, called Protect IP, earlier this year.
That concern about SOPA, which is heading toward a committee vote in the House of Representatives next month, led to a rare and embarrassing about-face on the part of the Business Software Alliance, a trade association that represents Microsoft's interests in Washington, D.C. (BSA, along with the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America, is among the seven members of the International Intellectual Property Alliance. Among BSA's projects is a pro-copyright Web site for kids featuring Garrett, the copyright-crusading ferret that Wired dubbed one of the "lamest technology mascots ever.")
The about-face is a surprise for a company which had supported the previous version of copyright crackdown. The authoritarian legislation would seem to be in line with a firm whose software rights had been used to arrest protesters in Russia:
It was late one afternoon in January when a squad of plainclothes police officers arrived at the headquarters of a prominent environmental group here. They brushed past the staff with barely a word and instead set upon the computers before carting them away. Taken were files that chronicled a generation’s worth of efforts to protect the Siberian wilderness.
The group, Baikal Environmental Wave, was organizing protests against Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin’s decision to reopen a paper factory that had polluted nearby Lake Baikal, a natural wonder that by some estimates holds 20 percent of the world’s fresh water.
Instead, the group fell victim to one of the authorities’ newest tactics for quelling dissent: confiscating computers under the pretext of searching for pirated Microsoft software.
Microsoft has long used sharp elbows to make up for its lack of creativity. Gates' original leap to stardom was off the back of pioneer programmer Gary Kildall, whose Control Program for Microcomputers (CP/M) was stolen to create QDOS, the “Quick and Dirty Operating System”. This was re-branded and sold to IBM for royalty fees.
There's no doubt that Kildall was one of the pioneers of the industry. He invented the first operating system for microcomputers in the early 1970s, making it possible for hobbyists and companies to build the first personal computers. Legalities aside, Microsoft's original DOS was based in part on Kildall's CP/M. His insight was that by creating an operating system separate from the hardware, applications could run on computers that were made by different manufacturers. "What really drove Gary was inventing things," says friend and former DRI executive Tom Rolander in an interview with BusinessWeek.
Gates quickly learned how profitable it could be to “borrow” ideas, spawning MS-DOS and Windows. However, Microsoft's monopolistic tendencies eventually caught up to them, getting slapped with the largest anticompetitive fine in history:
The European Union has found Microsoft guilty of abusing the "near-monopoly" of its Windows PC operating system and fined it a record 497 million euros. [...]
The European Commission issued the unanimous decision [in 2004] after a five-year investigation, finding Microsoft in violation of EU competition law.
The EU's antitrust authority said "because the illegal behavior is still ongoing," it would also demand changes in the way the U.S. software giant operated.
Instead of ramping up innovation, Microsoft responded by attempting to legalize its stolen goods, becoming little more than a patent troll:
So, Microsoft might be splitting itself into a patent troll (euphemism “licensing”) and other parts, at least if shareholders get their way. There are several articles right now about the shareholders’ meeting. A toned-down article from Microsoft’s ‘news’ site says that “Microsoft Corp shareholders filed out of the software giant’s annual meeting grumbling that they did not get to ask more questions in their once-a-year opportunity to quiz Chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer.
“The gathering broke up with only a smattering of applause from 450 or so in attendance, while a handful of shareholders angrily shouted for more time to ask questions, after a strictly enforced 15 minutes. […]
The basic point is, Microsoft is unable to come up with new products. It relies on old cash cows that it broke the law to put in their current state. Right now it tries to make up a new cash cow through racketeering.
It's aging products such as Windows are under siege by leaner, cheaper, more stable offerings. In the mobile space its expensive, power-hungry operating system has barely a toehold. The company is rumored to have became so desperate that it would take down an open-source based rival by placing a mole inside the boardroom:
It isn’t much past 4 p.m. at Nokia’s software development center in Tampere, Finland. The facility employs several thousand engineers. But already, the car park is deserted.
It’s been like this ever since [former Microsoft business head] Stephen Elop, the country’s first non-Finnish chief executive, sent out his infamous "burning platform" memo in February 2011. [...]
Days later, Elop revealed his plan. He would bet the company’s future on Windows Phone, signing a partnership deal with Microsoft. [...]
Nokia may in fact have a hard time winning back the dedication of the engineers here. Embracing Windows is particularly unpopular in Finland, the birthplace of Linux, the rebel open-source operating system dedicated to unseating Windows’ dominance.
MeeGo, the Nokia operating system Elop has scrapped, was a flagship project of the Linux movement.
One of Microsoft's coming ventures includes using a “secure boot” to block Linux from being installed on PCs. Another is to go rent-seeking on “white spaces”, considered to be the next “beachfront property” of wireless spectrum. The company's only true defense is that when your own products are this pathetic, why would anyone invest in them?
The sales of Microsoft’s Kin phones must have been nearly as bad as the faux-hip commercials for it. A mere two months after unveiling the product, the company has decided to stop working on the phone, targeted at avid social-networking teenagers