> Microsoft is doing this out of malice or just because they haven't thought it all the way through
Come on. It's Microsoft we are talking about. They regularly donate software to government agencies in order to promote their lock-in and to prevent competitors from gaining a foothold.
> The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission have both opened preliminary investigations into bribery accusations involving Microsoft in China, Italy and Romania, according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry is a confidential legal matter.
The article is 3-year old and of course nothing came out of it, but based on the very happy coincidence that our Government signed a big contract with MS just days after Ballmer had paid a quick visit to our God-forsaken country back in 2004 and that the PM at the time was a corrupt guy (who later on went to prison for other stuff) I'm 100% sure that MS (and Gates) actually took that money out of our pockets.
Good for Microsoft. If it's so easy to affect that government that all you need is lots of money and lawyers then why should Microsoft pay taxes? If the government has no teeth then whose to blame those that take advantage?
Does Microsoft receive money from the government for Windows licenses? Yes, then MS is funded using public money. You mustn't forget that whenever you point a finger, there are three more pointing back at you.
Those funds are lost regardless. There's no action that Microsoft or any other Western company can take that would do anything but leave them with a slightly cleaner conscience. As long as corruption is accepted those funds will never be directed towards schools, hospitals or infrastructure anyway.
It's a shitty argument, I'll grant you that, but it's not a problem that Microsoft can fix. They should take the moral high ground, but the money was always going to be siphoned of.
I hope governments are starting to understand what they have gotten themselves into by using this crap. Microsoft should be banned from all public offices :D
This may seem an unfair and ridiculously large amount of money to hoard, but there's one reason it isn't. When Bush came in his admin just took Microsoft off the hook. The US is so capitalist that it's quite happy for monopolies to subvert the whole point of capitalism - competition. So Apple, and every company, including Microsoft, must hoard as much paranoia money as it can, because the US government's willingness to be corrupted is obvious to everyone, especially if you're Apple, or say, Netscape. They got away with destroying it, didn't they. They wish we were all still using IE6. When the government is on the side of your competition, no amount will make you safe. They will crush you, while paying their friends soft money to look the other way.
Our government has a pretty long track record of privatizing law enforcement (not to mention prisons, warfare, etc...) so it's not surprising to see this handed off to Microsoft. If anything, a company like MS, Google or Mozilla at least has the expertise to do a good job.
I think the issue is with power, not intentions. Microsoft may make selfish decisions 100% of the time, but there's only so much impact they can have. The government has monopoly on violence, implemented through army and law enforcement, and can also make your life painful (or end it) in countless less direct ways - like monetary policies, healthcare policies, welfare policies, etc.
For once money will motivate a corporation (Microsoft this time) to fight for us, and not just give away all of our private personal data any time the government asks for it. We have Edward Snowden to thank for this.
I hope Microsoft wins; but the government pretty much always gets their way (one way or another).
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