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Microsoft Leaves Anti-Piracy Group After it Scolded EFF's New Board Chair
Microsoft has cut its ties with anti-piracy group CreativeFuture, after the group criticized the copyright track record of the new EFF board chair. This decision didn't sit well with CreativeFuture, which wrote a scathing letter arguing that Microsoft is turning its back on the copyright industries that helped the company to thrive.
In recent years CreativeFuture has been one of the most vocal anti-piracy groups. The coalition is made up of more than 550 organizations as well as hundreds of thousands of individual creators. The group lobbies lawmakers and leads the charge when it comes to many anti-piracy discussions. Its message is loud and clear: piracy is terrible and Google is enemy number one.
In recent years CreativeFuture has repeatedly pitted itself against major technology companies which it believes don't do enough to curb piracy. In this often hostile ecosystem, it found one sole tech giant at its side, Microsoft. "In an era of creative decimation perpetrated by the world's biggest technology companies, one of their very biggest made a point of joining us to stand up for copyright," CreativeFuture noted in a recent mailing.
While that sounds positive, the reason for the email isn't good. The anti-piracy coalition explains that Microsoft is the first member to ever leave the group. While the company hasn't publicly explained its motives, CreativeFuture knows why. According to the mailing, Microsoft wasn't happy with an article [archive] the group wrote about Pamela Samuelson, the new Board Chair at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
[...] "Confused and hurt, we did some digging, and discovered that Samuelson and Microsoft have a long history together, going at least as far back as 2005, when Microsoft gifted a whopping $1 million to the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at UC Berkeley," CreativeFuture writes. In addition, the coalition points out that Samuelson published a paper defending Microsoft in a lawsuit against AT&T, while the tech company continued to support the Samuelson Clinic.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Fluffeh on Wednesday November 27 2019, @08:58PM (7 children)
If you ever hear someone talking shit about another person behind their back, you better believe they do it about you the moment you turns yours.
Same goes for organisations like this. If they shit-stain anyone "against" them, the moment you aren't a member, expect a hose pointed in your direction.
Quite frankly, it is a shame that groups like this can act they way they do.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 27 2019, @09:30PM (2 children)
It doesn't seem to be just this one instance, either... almost every post on the CreativeFuture blog appears to be just constant shitposting about other people and organizations.
I'm surprised any company would want to be affiliated with that. Good on Microsoft for disassociating themselves from that tripe.
(Score: 3, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday November 27 2019, @09:49PM (1 child)
I like "The Facts Illustrated" page on their site.
It contains no facts, really.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday November 28 2019, @06:48AM
I just visited it [creativefuture.org]. No illustration either, just some graphic FX unrelated to the chow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday November 27 2019, @09:55PM (1 child)
The QOTD seems relevant.
(Score: 2, Touché) by khallow on Thursday November 28 2019, @12:01AM
With eight inches of sharpened, double-edged steel, amirite?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Wednesday November 27 2019, @11:25PM
FTFY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday November 28 2019, @02:40AM
Transparency is the key... make sure these type of comments stay with them forever, let them earn their way back to respectable status, or die trying.
As for Microsoft - freely pirateable OS and software packages made them what they are today. Microsoft copy protection was non-existent in the first decade of their broad success, which ensured that everyone used their products whether they could afford them (or cared to pay for them) or not. I give BillyG very little genius cred for his OS work, anyone reasonably skilled in the art could have done what he did, and better. I give him top marks for business sense, and taking advantage of the mechanics of "free (as in beer) software" before the concept was even codified.
🌻🌻 [google.com]