Dirty Tricks
A GRAB BAG OF DECEPTION, DISHONESTY &
HIGH-HANDED TACTICS
Privacy is Where You Find it
Microsoft managed to grab headlines with their announced
intentions to pull company advertising from any web site
that doesn't publish a privacy statement. So they're on
our side of the privacy issue, right? Well, that
appears to depend entirely on who's doing the transgressing.
Only months before, it was discovered that Microsoft Office
secrets an identifier code in every document -- a unique
code that can trace the file right back to the computer that
created it. Microsoft issued all the standard denials in
this instance, of course, and promptly issued a "fix" for
Office. But now they apparently expect us to accept the
utterly unbelievable -- that the company is actually driving
the privacy issue in our behalf.
For stories on the Office privacy
invasion, see Pharlap
Software and CNET.
For other blatant Microsoft privacy hypocrisies, see
Registration
Under Duress and Peeping
Bill, on this page. [26 June
1999]
Am I Blue?
On November 18, 1998 the digital greeting card company Blue
Mountain Arts discovered that beta versions of Microsoft's
Outlook Express (which comes free with Internet Explorer)
were automatically filing Blue Mountain's e-mail greeting
cards into the "junk" folder rather than the "inbox."
Shortly afterwards, Blue Mountain Arts discovered that
Microsoft's WebTV service was blocking their e-mail greeting
cards as well.
Why would Microsoft want to prevent electronic greeting
cards from being delivered? It turns out that after an
unsuccessful attempt to purchase Blue Mountain Arts,
Microsoft started its own electronic greeting card service.
The "bug" in Outlook Express appeared at about the same time
that Microsoft's greeting card service began.
Coincidence? The Honorable Robert A. Baines didn't think
so, and granted a preliminary injunction against Microsoft
to protect the delivery of Blue Mountain Arts greeting
cards. Microsoft reacted to this injunction by removing the
e-mail filter from Outlook Express.
Microsoft claims to have attempted to assist Blue
Mountain with this problem, but according to Blue Mountain
Arts, that assistance consisted mostly of telling them to
wait for the next release of Internet Explorer at "an
unspecified date in the future."
References from Blue
Mountain, IDG,
and Microsoft.
[27 March 1999]
A Tangled Web
When the courts ordered Microsoft to ship Windows
without an integrated Internet Explorer, the company
"complied" by offering a non-functional version of the OS,
claiming that the browser was now so completely integrated
into Windows to remove it was tantamount to "breaking" the
operating system. But in Federal court in December,
Princeton University Professor Edward Felten handily
debunked this claim, demonstrating a program written by two
graduate students that removes MSIE functionality from
Windows 98 -- a feat worthy of Houdini, if Microsoft is to
be believed.
Ah, but that's not the real dirty trick. In cross
examination, Microsoft's attorney attempted to show that
Felten's IE exorciser had indeed broken Windows, charging
that the program was incompatible with the Microsoft Windows
98 update web site. The attorney explained that Microsoft
had problems with Felton's program since it was turned over
to them in the discovery process in September.
No, answered Professor Felten, the program had worked
properly since it was completed in the spring, except for a
period in December when Microsoft altered the update web
site, temporarily disabling the program and requiring him to
change it. This exchange led presiding Judge Penfield
Jackson to inquire of the witness, "Are you telling me that
as part of discovery you provided this code in September,
whereupon there appears to have been product changes by
Microsoft?" Professor Felten concurred with the Judge's
assessment.
As reported on ZDNet.
[15 Dec 98]
Registration Under Duress
With the release of Office 2000, Microsoft will
introduce another innovation in consumer abuse: mandatory
product registration. According to this scheme, if a copy of
Office 2000 remains unregistered after 50 launches, it will
cease functioning on the 51st attempt -- and will remain
disabled until the owner calls Microsoft and tells them
whatever they want to know. Not only is the company planning
on invading the privacy of its customers, they are
unilaterally restricting their ability to use a product
they've paid for by placing arbitrary and insulting
preconditions on its use.
As reported in CNN,
and elsewhere. [12 Nov 98]
Peeping Bill
Microsoft is now using its WebTV boxes as an in-house
consumer data-gathering tool -- with "in house" defined as
"in customer's houses." Microsoft polls WebTV boxes nightly
to collect customer web surfing and viewing habits --
statistics which in turn are sold to advertisers. But
there's more: When the first Window CE television cable
boxes hit the market in 1999, they will invite Microsoft's
prying eyes into at least 5 million additional homes, and
will be armed with an even more comprehensive ability to
track customer viewing habits and report them to
advertisers. ¿Mi casa es su casa?
As reported in USA
Today (Link no longer
functioning, but also reported by ZDNet).
Smothering Freeware
Containing commercial competitors is one matter, but
undercutting the free software movement is another -- one
Microsoft has apparently designated a high priority. As a
measure of the perceived threat of freeware, witness
Microsoft's maneuvers to marginalize Samba, the freeware
application that permits the Linux OS (a free Unix
derivative) to communicate with Windows NT, 95 and 98, among
others. The combination of Linux and Samba can obviate the
need for Windows NT servers, one of Microsoft's most coveted
markets. And that can't be allowed to happen.
Microsoft's stealth war against Linux and Samba opened
with the release of Service Pack 3 for Windows NT 4. With
this release, Microsoft implemented a subtle change to NT's
communications protocols, making it incompatible with Samba.
An adjustment to the Windows NT registry can reverse the
incompatibility, but at the same time Microsoft eliminated
the instructions for this fix from their website. In fact,
they went several steps further -- by erasing from the
website every reference to Samba and a previously posted
technical article.
Microsoft's company philosophy was never more clear;
competing technology, no matter the source, cannot be
allowed to survive. Freeware like Samba may be invulnerable
to the usual marketing ploys, but that won't stop Microsoft
from attempting to will it out of existence.
As reported by Robert
X. Cringely
Use Internet Explorer or..?
Microsoft customers upgrading their copies of Microsoft
Office at the Microsoft website, but using the competition's
web browser, are greeted with a message insisting on the use
of MSIE for the "full edition" of the update. Or does it?
It's all just a simple and unintentional misunderstanding,
says a Microsoft spokesperson: The "limited edition" Office
update offered to non-MSIE users "contains links to all
Office updates [but] the full edition of Office
Update has many more features... to experience the benefits
of the full edition of Office Update, you'll need to use
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 or above." Got that?
None of this is meant to be be confusing, or to lure
unsuspecting customers into switching to MSIE, says
Microsoft, but the murky language of the message greeting
non-Explorer users will be changed anyway (though the
browser discrimination will not). It's becoming familiar
pattern -- Microsoft willfully obfuscates until they're
caught in the act, and then slips shamelessly into
stonewalling mode.
As reported by CNET.
Paying the Ultimate Price
When the tiny startup company TV Host, developer of the
first television program guide for PCs, was invited to
partner with Microsoft, they were understandably
enthusiastic. But when licensing talks broke down, Microsoft
abruptly announced their intentions to integrate Microsoft's
own TV program guide into Windows 98, undercutting TV Host's
budding market. It was a move made all the easier by
Microsoft having gained access to TV Host's product and
business plan during negotiations.
And Microsoft's rationale for integrating a television
program guide into Windows? No tale of this kind would be
complete without the patented tortured reasoning of a
Microsoft spokesperson: "[The program guide] is a
logical extension of the system for a certain class of
users."
Microsoft Critics Assigned PR "Spooks"
San Jose Mercury technology reporter Dan Gilmore
recently
discovered he's been assigned a special "owner" at one
of Microsoft's public relations firms, Waggener-Edstrom.
These spin-masters are attached to troublesome journalists
like Gilmore who have the temerity to write uncomplimentary
articles about the company or its products.
The really irksome reporters, according to documents
spirited from the Waggener-Edstrom offices, are also
assigned "buddies" at Microsoft itself. John Dodge, the
editor of PC Week, has a special buddy at Microsoft,
and Mary Jo Foley at Smart Reseller, is the subject
of a "Mary Jo six month plan.''
These "owners" and "buddies" are just there to "help" the
journalists, of course. How dare we think otherwise?
[see
also...]
Cookie Crumbs
Attempting to access so-called "premium" services on
Microsoft's web site requires users to accept "cookies," a
condition some people don't entirely appreciate, because
cookies amount to personal data recorded and accessed on
their hard drives by a remote web server, and without their
knowledge. So it's quite common for web surfers to switch
off automatic cookie acceptance in their browsers.
Microsoft really doesn't care for our excising this
prerogative, probably because it prevents them from
collecting valuable marketing information about us. But
that's not all -- the company uses the condition as yet
another pretext to flog Internet Explorer, and in a most
deceptive fashion. Refuse a cookie, and microsoft.com
delivers a special message, of which this is a key
portion:
Sorry about the
temporary detour.
You arrived at this page for one of two reasons:
1. Your browser
doesn't support cookies.
2. You were asked to accept a cookie and
refused.
IF YOUR BROWSER
DOESN'T SUPPORT COOKIES ...
We think you should
change browsers. Here's why.
The Microsoft.com Web
site consists of more than 200,000 pages of valuable
information. Virtually all is free, but you'll need a
special entry password to access what we call premium
sites.... But if your browser doesn't accept cookies,
then you can't access premium information.
How to switch
browsers? It's very easy. Just click here and we'll
deliver you directly to the Internet Explorer page, where
you can download Internet Explorer very
quickly.
Internet Explorer is
the fastest-growing browser in the world. It's the most
technologically advanced browser, and yet the easiest to
use. Once you've downloaded Internet Explorer and have
filled out the premium-site information, you can travel
to virtually any corner of microsoft.com. You may be
asked for a password, but that's it.
Apart from the question of whether Microsoft's web site
visitors should be forced to accept unwelcomed cookies, this
notice seems targeted at the unsophisticated user, who might
not know if their browser supports cookies (nearly all do),
but that the option to automatically accept them is turned
off. This notice appears to be carefully crafted for the
purpose of tricking the unsuspecting user into switching
immediately to MSIE, an apparent precondition for viewing
the Microsoft site.
This offense was reported by several
readers.
You Can't be Too Careful These Days
Linking from the Microsoft support website to an external
site results in the imposition of a very curious window
between you and the referred to site. The window warns:
Notice: You are
leaving Microsoft's site
You should know that
sites listed here are not under the control of Microsoft.
Accordingly, Microsoft can make no representation
concerning the content of these sites to you, nor can the
fact that Microsoft has given you this listing serve as
an endorsement by Microsoft of any of these sites.
Microsoft is providing this list only as a convenience to
you; this is to inform you that Microsoft has not tested
any software found on these sites and therefore cannot
make any representations regarding the quality, safety or
suitability of any software found there. There are
inherent dangers in the use of any software found on the
Internet, and Microsoft cautions you to make sure that
you completely understand the risk before retrieving any
software on the Internet.
You will automatically
be redirected to <the outside site> in 20 seconds.
Click here if your browser does not support redirects.
Implication: all software "not under the control of
Microsoft" is "inherently dangerous." Of course, Microsoft
is in the process of eliminating this hazard, so we should
be thankful that this danger is strictly temporary.
Thanks to Bill
Gilroy for this
discovery.
ISPs Must Serve Microsoft
Whether they like it or not, Internet Service Providers must
immediately install Microsoft's Front Page Extensions on
their web severs for all of their Windows 98 customers, or
place their businesses at serious risk. Why? Because if they
fail to install Front Page Extensions, Microsoft Front Page
Express users will be greeted by a Web Publishing Wizard
"error
message" strongly suggesting that they take their
business to another provider.
Only days after this situation was revealed, Microsoft
promised a correction. According to a spokesperson, the
deceptive error message "was in no way a deliberate action
by Microsoft."
Thanks to Shiloh
Costa at MDI Internet Inc. for
unearthing this outrage.
Academic Kickbacks
According to a special report on Microsoft's presence in the
academy, the Chronicle
of Higher Education reports that computer science
professors mentioning Microsoft products in scholarly
presentations are eligible to apply for a $200.00 reward
from the company. To hear both the company and some
professors defend this practice, you'd have to believe that
the sum is too small to be regarded as corporate payola.
Which only makes one wonder why Microsoft bothers to offer
the program, and why the professors bother to collect on
it.
[see
also...]
The Best Enthusiasm Money Can Buy
We might think that spending several hundreds of
millions of dollars every year on commercial speech would be
just about enough to allow any company to "tell its story"
to the public. But we would not be Microsoft, who the Los
Angeles Times revealed was gearing up a multi-million
dollar public relations campaign which included planting
ersatz letters to the editor in major national newspapers.
The goal: to create the appearance, if not the reality, of
"grassroots" support for the company.
"Spontaneous" testimonials penned by hired guns may not
be an entirely novel idea in the surreal world of public
relations, but Microsoft's response to having been caught in
the act of committing such a crass act was certainly
uncommon. At first, the company denied their intentions to
actually implement such a plan. Then, a few days later,
company spokespersons announced a new spin: Microsoft has a
perfect right to engage in public opinion manipulation
campaigns, if that's what it takes to "tell its story."
Now, what exactly was that story, again?
[see
also...]
Palm Reading
After experiencing disappointing sales of their
keyboard-driven portable computers running the WindowsCE
operating system, Microsoft decided in late 1997 to market
tiny, hand-held computers operated with a stylus, placing
them in direct competition with the popular, and
functionally similar, Palm Pilot personal information
manager. After conducting what was termed "original
marketing research," Microsoft dubbed its new product the
Palm PC. Palm Computing Inc., a division of the 3Com
Corporation, quickly filed a trademark infringement suit in
Europe, complaining that Microsoft was deliberately
attempting to confuse consumers by borrowing the first five
letters of their product's name.
Bill Gates scoffed at Palm Computing's claims, labeling
them "beyond bizarre."
But even as he defended the company against these
assertions in a conference with reporters, Gates managed to
tip his hand -- or perhaps more accurately, his palm.
Moments after he left the meeting, an assistant returned to
the room saying she had come back to pick up "Bill's Palm
Pilot," which he had accidentally left on the table.
In April, Microsoft agreed to cease using the infringing
"Palm PC" name. Microsoft backing down -- now, that's
"beyond bizarre."
The Protection Racket
The Business Software Alliance is ostensibly a trade
association that tracks down pirated software on behalf of
its members in the software industry. But the BSA mainly
does Microsoft's bidding, according to an investigation
conducted by Mother Jones Magazine. According to the
magazine, the BSA files suits against offending
organizations, but quickly drops them when they agree to
sign deals to purchase Microsoft software exclusively. The
article "Overseas
Invasion" documents cases of BSA blackmail in Europe,
South America and Australia.
Annexing the Public Domain
In 1995 a virtually unknown company called Corbis
purchased the Bettman Archives, the world's largest private
collection of historical and newspaper photographs. Corbis,
a company founded in 1989 and owned by Bill Gates, is also
actively negotiating with museums worldwide for exclusive
licenses to electronically reproduce works of art held in
their collections. Since that time, the Corbis "collection"
has swelled to over 20 million images.
The apparent purpose is to provide Microsoft with access
to a huge supply of exclusive cultural "content" for its web
sites and multimedia CDs, and to prevent others from
obtaining similar access. The rub is that Corbis now holds
exclusive reproduction rights to images which are not
copyrighted, but are in held in the public domain. Gates has
seduced these museums, presumably with promises of future
residuals, into veering from their missions as trustees of
our cultural legacies, and into exploring the murkiest areas
of "fair use" practices and curatorial ethics.
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