Yet ANOTHER reason to dislike MIcro$oft- They help Opressive regimes !

[cbelt3]

Forbes talks about events in Kyrgistan

"This is where Microsoft comes in. According to the local 24.kg news agency, agents of the State Financial Police and a representative of Microsoft arrived armed with an order from the Kyrgyzstan Prosecutor General's office to seal all the station's equipment. This included confiscating private laptops that were on the premises at the time. The justification for this action was the charge from Microsoft's agent that Stan Media LLC may be using pirated Microsoft software. This charge had yet to be proven, however the station was shut down pending such time when a final determination could be made. A Stan TV official was quoted as saying:"

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Whaaa ? Of cour se, the poor bastiche was probably threatened with a gun to his head if he didn't lend his name to the action, but... wow.

[Article Accelerator]

This one is a bit more serious:

http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jan/07/...a-gatesx07
"An ink spot certified that he had been immunized against polio and measles, thanks to a vaccination drive supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

"But polio is not the only threat Justice faces. Almost since birth, he has had respiratory trouble. His neighbors call it "the cough." People blame fumes and soot spewing from flames that tower 300 feet into the air over a nearby oil plant. It is owned by the Italian petroleum giant Eni, whose investors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation...

"The Gates Foundation has poured $218 million into polio and measles immunization and research worldwide, including in the Niger Delta. At the same time...it has invested $423 million in...companies responsible for most of the flares blanketing the delta with pollution, beyond anything permitted in the United States or Europe."