The True Bill Gates

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:56 am Post subject: (EN) 15 FEB 05: Danish newspaper reports on Microsoft threat Reply with quote

LEADING DANISH NEWSPAPER BØRSEN REPORTS ON THREATS BY MICROSOFT'S GATES AGAINST DANISH PRIME MINISTER RASMUSSEN

According to today's issue of leading Danish newspaper Børsen, Bill Gates threatened to kill 800 Danish jobs if Denmark opposed software patent directive

Philips said to have threatened Dutch government, rumors of more such blackmail

Brussels (15 February 2005). In today's edition, Danish financial newspaper Børsen reports that Microsoft founder Bill Gates threatened the Danish government in connection with software patents. According to the article, Gates told Rasmussen and two Danish ministers in November that he would kill all 800 jobs in Navision, a Danish company acquired by Microsoft in 2002, unless the EU were to quickly decide to legalize software patents through a directive. Denmark is a country with only 5 million inhabitants and a relatively small high-tech sector to which the loss of 800 jobs would have significant implications.

It would not be the first threat of its kind. A group of large corporations including Philips is reported to have previously threatened European governments to outsource all of their European software development jobs to low-wage countries unless the EU were to allow patents on software through the directive that is currently being worked on. Hans Streng, chief executive of Philips' software division, was quoted by Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad in the summer for publicly making the threat in question.

In January, leading Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported on a letter addressed by the Polish subsidiaries of Siemens, Nokia, Philips, Ericsson and Alcatel to Poland's prime minister Marek Belka. The exact content of the letter was not disclosed but it is said to have indicated that the respective companies would reconsider making investments in Poland if the Polish government upheld its resistance to the legalization of software patents in the EU.

"It's utterly despicable to use the basis of people's livelihood for a disgusting threat", said Florian Mueller, the manager of the pan-European NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign. He claims to have been an earwitness to such a threat by a Philips official, and to have learned from political sources about similar threats by other corporations. "The country in which you develop a technology has nothing to do with where you can take out patents. If they move jobs to Asia, they won't get a single additional patent, neither in Asia nor in Europe. If you warn politicians of consequences that are directly related to a legislative issue, that's acceptable. If you threaten with causing damage that has no factual connection whatsoever, then it's blackmail. Plain and simple."

He pointed out that the China Business Daily recently reported on the high patent output of Philips' plant in Shanghai. "Companies like Philips don't want software patents to protect the work of their European employees against Asian imitators. Quite the opposite: They want patents on software they develop in Asia, and then want to use those patents against Europe's small and medium-sized enterprises."

In Mueller's opinion, those media reports on political blackmail "show the enormous desperation of those who cannot make a case for something as unjust as software patents on the basis of economic reason". The campaigner called on Europe's political leaders to not bow to any such threats: "The EU must not be blackmailable."

On Thursday (17 February), the European Parliament's Conference of Presidents is widely anticipated to support the request of its Legal Affairs Committee to restart the entire legislative process on the software patent directive. The request will then be communicated by the President of the EP to the European Commission, which has to decide on how to proceed. The EU Council originally also planned to formally adopt its "Common Position" that day but has had to postpone plans due to resistance by some country governments and national parliaments. This month, three parliaments have already spoken out against the Council's proposal, and a fourth one (the German Bundestag) is scheduled to follow suit on Thursday evening.

References to Relevant Materials

Danish newspaper report on alleged threats by Microsoft's Bill Gates against Danish government: http://www.borsen.dk/dagens-nyheder/?ids[]=70135

Dutch report on threats by Philips' Hans Streng against Dutch government: http://www.webwereld.nl/nieuws/19599.phtml

Polish newspaper report on letter by Siemens, Nokia, Philips, Ericsson and Alcatel to Polish prime minister: http://gospodarka.gazeta.pl/gospodarka/1,33181,2513286.html

China Business Daily report on Philips' patenting activity in Shanghai: http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=219

Press Conference in Brussels on 17 February

NoSoftwarePatents.com will, in conjunction with the FFII, hold a press conference in Brussels on Thursday, 17 February 2005, from 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM in the Zurich room of the Marriott Renaissance Hotel on Rue du Parnasse, only a stone's throw from Place du Luxembourg and the European Parliament.

About the NoSoftwarePatents.com Campaign

The NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign was launched on October 20th and is supported by three IT companies (1&1, Red Hat, and MySQL AB). The views expressed by the campaign are those of the campaign manager and not necessarily those of the aforementioned companies.

Through Web content in 17 languages, the campaign addresses a pan-European audience. More information on the campaign is available on its Website.

Contact Information

For further information concerning this announcement or the NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign, please contact:

Florian Mueller Campaign Manager, NoSoftwarePatents.com telephone +49 (8151) 651850 press@nosoftwarepatents.com Back to top View user's profile Send private message