Linux news

2007 07 12

Microsoft Plans to Hold Vital Data Hostage

Questions for Microsoft on open formats

After Microsoft announced it would work with the UK National Archives to help open old digital document formats, Georg Greve and Joachim Jakobs, of the Free Software Foundation Europe, question the US giant's motives. [...] What happened: Microsoft asked the UK National Archives to invest in a solution that would grant access to their legacy data.

http://s5h.net/u?z4ea4
U.N., Microsoft open door to medical data in poor countries

Microsoft is contributing to the effort by offering servers and security software designed to help protect the journal material from unauthorized distribution outside the project.

http://s5h.net/u?z6cb0
Sounds like DRM is a possibility here, if not proprietary technology. They do the same in the United States, offering cheap storage of medical data. Think of it as putting a pawn to secure dependency. They already do it with Facebook, through investments that block Google acquisitions.