● 09.07.11

●● Cablegate: Microsoft Uses US Diplomats to Pressure Oman to Intimidate Population Using Newspapers

Posted in Asia, Deception, FUD, Microsoft at 7:07 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: A rare glimpse at a common phenomenon where Microsoft uses national papers to spread fear and the advertisers in newspapers are said to be playing a role

Microsoft and its slaves in the Government of Oman (who gave Microsoft taxpayers' money) have only led to further criminalisation of the population, which Microsoft loves calling “pirates” (an inappropriate term). Occasionally Microsoft and its bully, the BSA, organise intimidation campaigns which even cables reveal are just intended to create a scare. In the following Cablegate cable there is concern that the newspapers did not do as Microsoft and the BSA please; they didn’t spread enough fear by naming the country targeted as an "enforcement showcase":

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VZCZCXYZ0006

RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHMS #0938 2810622

ZNR UUUUU ZZH

R 080622Z OCT 07

FM AMEMBASSY MUSCAT

TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8838

INFO RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC

UNCLAS MUSCAT 000938

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/ARP, EEB/TPP/MTA/IPC

COMMERCE FOR COBERG

COMMERCE PASS TO USPTO (PFOWLER)

E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: ECON, ETRD, KIPR, MU

SUBJECT: MICROSOFT SETTLES WITH OMANI SOFTWARE PIRATES

1. (U) On October 7, Econoff discussed Microsoft's conclusion

of an out-of-court settlement with four Omani companies

engaged in software piracy with Jawad al-Redha, Microsoft's

Gulf Anti-Piracy Manager and Co-Chair of the Business

Software Alliance. Redha noted that the settlement was the

product of over seven months of work in negotiating with the

violators, identified as al-Madina, al-Rafraf, al-Arabiya,

and World IT. Under the agreement, each company will pay

Microsoft USD 3,000 in compensation and pledge to refrain

from selling illegal software in the future.

2. (SBU) Redha expressed optimism that the agreement will

create momentum in enforcing IPR in Oman. He was quick to

point out that Oman's purported software piracy rate of 62%

was still high for the region, but that concerted efforts

such as this would help bring that statistic down several

percentage points each year. Redha said that improvements

need to be made on the public relations front in reaching

this goal. As an example, he noted that the press release on

the settlement was only published in the English-language

daily Oman Observer, and only after the government cleared on

text that did not include country-specific references. Redha

speculated that the publishers of Oman's Arabic-language

dailies, which declined to publicize the settlement, were

worried that they would lose advertising revenue from the

companies cited in the text of the announcement.

3. (SBU) Comment: Microsoft's settlement comes on the heels

of change in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the lead

Omani agency in promoting intellectual property rights.

Econoff learned on October 3 that the director of the

Intellectual Property Department has been reassigned to a

lower-level position in a different office of the ministry,

and that his deputy has been transferred to an unrelated

department as well. Post suspects that the director's

ineffectiveness during the implementation stage of the

U.S.-Oman Free Trade Agreement may have precipitated the

reshuffle. End comment.

FONTENEAU

They are trying to use newspapers as a propaganda tool. Advertisers affect the content of newspapers. █

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