Comments on: Microsoft Rips Off Plurk

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:51:04 +0000

The root problem is the stock market, I think. If a company doesn’t have linearly increasing revenue, it’s deemed a failure and folds. Nothing in reality is linear, least of all matters of economics.

The problem is that we have huge multinational companies that aren’t just making one or two people some money, but making scores of executives and major shareholders craploads of money.

And it’s never enough for them…

I’m kind of hoping that a Plurker will drop by with some insider gossip about how Microsoft got hold of the idea that they could do this one. There must be a story, I guess.

Yes, that would certainly be nice. I think Techcrunch, Mashable, and the usual suspects have picked up on the story now, so I might have to give their comments a quick scan and see if anyone’s shed some light on this.

By: Steven Clark

Steven Clark — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:16:35 +0000

Ha ha… MS is just a shadow on the same path as other large companies who get caught up in the “maximising revenue” stream. And all the while we keep reading about these lousey three strikes laws that governments keep trying to sneak into our lives…

I wonder if in 10 years time we’ll be asking what killed the web – greed or simply forgetting that its about people freely connecting and sharing information…

I’m kind of hoping that a Plurker will drop by with some insider gossip about how Microsoft got hold of the idea that they could do this one. There must be a story, I guess.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 01:17:07 +0000

I don’t know. I’m not really a Plurker.

But if that is the case, it’s still wrong. Just wrong. And people talk about how “evil” Apple and Google are…

By: Steven Clark

Steven Clark — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:44:56 +0000

Matt, I’m wondering if at sometime the Plurk guys didn’t get an interview from Microsoft for potential financing that never eventuated. One thing Microsoft is apparently rife at is calling small firms in and getting them to sign a sheet before they get the interview – it allows microsoft to not only look at your code but to snarfle it up like a big code pig and not ever pay you any royalties…

The Australian guy who just won the half a billion dollar settlement from microsoft (under appeal) over his authentication code (used in Windows) was asked early on to sign such a deal. He’d just read a book about Microsoft business tactics so refused. He said, after the verdict, that had he signed that paper that day he’d have been without a case to chase them on.

So… maybe this is a case of signing one’s work away to the money grubbers with the fine print…

It will be interesting to see Microsoft’s response. Maybe I’m wrong, who knows? Has Plurk been into Microsoft’s offices recently looking for a deal?