Battleangel

According to a leading Danish newspaper, in partial translation here by Florian Mueller of NoSoftwarePatents.com, Microsoft went to the highest level of government in order to make Denmark accept and vote in favor of the software patent directive.

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.

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.

Microsoft has since denied the story. In an official press release no less. It seems likely that Bill and the lads of big biz did in fact make those implications and now are afraid to stand by them or chose to leak the information as a last resort. I guess some would buckle under the pressure and even the notion that they could be in for economic sanctions by several leading high tech companies. Saves a lot of time, doesn’t it, by not having to threaten everyone in person, and rather have it spread by the media. At first glance, and by believers in open-source and a patent-less society such as myself, this is incriminating evidence on the highest level. But I cannot be sure that everyone will react that way and Microsoft probably knows better.

There are those that would be compelled to comply even by this rumour, denied or not. It’s not unlike leaking the torture evidence from Abu Ghraib, sending Nato into former Yugoslavia or how the Nazi movement orchestrated the pan-european basis for ethnic and ideological cleansing back in the 1930s. Just to name a few analogies that came to mind. Strong words I know. But it’s a tried and true strategy that only at first seems prone to backlash. And the outcome of this struggle is no less important. Most people just don’t see it yet.