Re: Microsoft's vision of empowering

[Paul Rickard <mail@msbc.simplenet.com>]

normanmo@clark.net

>     I (and others on this list) have long warned that it's about more
>than just an OS for the PC.  IMO M$ is working to control *ALL*
>'e-commerce' (for lack of a better term) by having their hands in both
>ends.  At the current pace it won't be long before there will be
>absolutely no way anyone will be able to do anything on the internet
>without going through or using something from M$.

    Ever since I became an activist on this issue, I've worried more 
about areas outside computing that I have about Windows. Desktop 
operating systems are just the beginning, and even the Internet is just a 
start for Microsoft. What concerns me is their control over everything 
else, primarily the phone and cable lines that bring that Internet (and 
television) information into our homes and businesses.
    It started back in 97, Microsoft tried to buy 40% of Turner 
broadcasting so Turner could purchase CBS. CBS went to Westinghouse, and 
Microsoft as a result let Turner go to TimeWarner. Then they started 
throwing money willy-nilly into the cable industry, picking up 10% of 
Comcast, then trying to buy MediaOne. They made several billion in 
foreign cable investments (not regularted by US laws) and now have 
significant investments in four or five telecom companies in Europe, one 
in Canada, one in Mexico, one in Brazil, two in Japan and four in the 
USA. Bill Gates also has Teledesic, and that company about to consume 
Irridium. All that plus what estranged Microsoft cofounder and old Gates 
friend Paul Allen controls. There are more than I can keep track of, 
you'd have to use Mitch's Microsoft Catalog for a more complete list. It 
just scares the hell out of me, to be honest.



======== Paul Rickard, Editor of The Microsoft Boycott Campaign =======
--------------------------------[ Http://www.msboycott.com ]-----------