J2D3

Microsoft Says, “MINE!!!”

Here is a more comprehensive article about Microsoft’s recent patent aggression.

“The free world says that software is the embodiment of knowledge about technology, which needs to be free in the same way that mathematics is free,” he says. “Everybody is allowed to know as much of it as he wants, regardless of whether he can pay for it, and everybody can contribute and everybody can share.”

To this, Microsoft says, “MINE!!!”

Now, I am no fan of Microsoft, but I am perplexed that a company would be so blinded to its own existing and extensive branding and image problems as to continue down this path.

(click here to see the software map full size)

While most of Google’s undeniable success is due to its innovative business practices, one crucial aspect that should not be overlooked is their genius branding campaign, their famous slogan, “Don’t be Evil.” It has always been a clear reference to Microsoft’s ever-expanding global branding problems… Microsoft’s aggressive legal tactics in establishing and then defending its monopolistic behavior had already formed a powerful association, “Microsoft = Evil,” in the minds of many worldwide. Google’s behavior has arguably also been “monopolistic,” but they’ve done it with a smile, saying “we’re not evil, we’re not Microsoft,” thereby creating a powerful emotional alliance with their customers… their user-base. Their customers feel good and not evil using their products. Microsoft has not paid any attention to this. They’ve been too concerned trying to preserve a business model whose time has come and gone, and in the process they continue to alienate their own customers big and small.

Watching Microsoft set itself up for such a spectacular failure fits into America’s new favorite pass-time quite well. We’re schadenfreudeists. We love a trainwreck, a clusterfuck, call it what you will. We like to see the giants stumble and fall down hard. The current MS IP battle is this sort of thing on a very grand scale. Maybe not as grand as Iraq, but certainly bigger than Anna Nicole. I for one look forward to hours of pleasure derived from Microsoft’s impending pain.