- Pacific
“The FREE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION (FSF) is to write to the leaders of 500 of the most influential non-governmental organizations (NGOs) worldwide to urge them to refuse Windows 7.” (FSF urges non-profits to reject Windows 7)The letters will list the seven areas where the FSF says Microsoft and the commercial software market is damaging:
invading privacy, poisoning education, locking users in, abusing standards, leveraging monopolistic behaviour, enforcing Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), and threatening user security.
Bill gates made a lot of money from Microsoft. Bill Gates has a net worth of $50 billion. This is more than the gross domestic product (GDP) of Costa Rica or El Salvador or Bolivia or Uruguay. It is bigger than the GDP of 140 countries. (America’s Richest:Countries Billionaires Could Buy)
The CIA may have found Gates useful. Microsoft software runs most personal computers. “It shouldn’t be tough for a guy like Gates to add in a little something extra for the computers in, for example, Afghanistan, Iraq or China.” (gates-cia)
Microsoft says its software does not contain back doors for use by the CIA. Microsoft’s chief security strategist Scott Charney says (No back doors for CIA in our code: Microsoft – theage.com.au): “Let assume we put a back door in, do you think it wouldn’t be discovered? Look how many people are probing and testing our products. If it was discovered, what do you think our long-term business survivability would be? I think it would be zero.”
In 2002, the CIA admitted using an illegal ’snooper cookie’ to tail people who visited its website. (CIA used illegal snooper cookie – V3.co.uk – formerly vnunet.com )
The cookie informed the CIA about all the websites users visited for years after it was installed on a PC. Such cookies are banned by the US government. But the snooper software was found by Daniel Brandt, president of Public Information Research. The CIA admitted having the cookie installed on its site. (aangirfan, 10.08.2009) http://aangirfan.blogspot.com/2009/10/microsoft-7-bill-gates-cia.html
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