Microsoft's Moral Compromise Stains Reputation

Watching a giant turn into a moral midget is an unpleasant sight. In fact, it is downright disgusting.

Chinese Target Web's 'Prohibited Language', By ELAINE KURTENBACH, The Associated Press, Tuesday, June 14, 2005; 12:11 PM

SHANGHAI, China -- Chinese bloggers, even on foreign-sponsored sites, had better choose their words carefully _ the censors are watching. Users of the MSN Spaces section of Microsoft Corp.'s new China-based Web portal get a scolding message each time they input words deemed taboo by the communist authorities _ such as democracy, freedom and human rights. "Prohibited language in text, please delete," the message says. The Chinese government encourages Internet use for business and education but tries to ban access to material deemed subversive.

Internet-related companies are obliged to accept such limitations as a condition of doing business in China. And government-installed filtering tools, registration requirements and other surveillance are in place to ensure the rules are enforced. "We're in business in lots of countries. I think every time you go into a market you are faced with a different regulatory environment and you have to go make a choice as a business," [the Microsoft spokesman] said. "Even with the filters, we're helping millions of people communicate, share stories, share photographs and build relationships. For us, that is the key point here."

The Microsoft spokesman said it well, that every time you go into a market, you have to make choices as a business. And. apparently Microsoft considers getting and keeping market share in a tyranny to be total justification for amoral dealings on Red China's fatwa terms. And that is what this is, an oriental fatwa. Microsoft made the choice to grovel, then to rationalize it with statements like "Even with the filters, we're helping millions of people communicate, share stories, share photographs and build relationships. For us, that is the key point here." That statement means that Microsoft supports suppression of free speech, ideas, and intellectual property but hopes everybody can have a feel-good experience about it. That last item, intellectual property, Microsoft will sue anyone in the USA over when sensing infringement, but it obviously will throw it away before tyrants.

This reminds of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie by that jolly, old fellow, Khomeini. President Bush 41 remarked about it that he failed to see what the fuss was all about. He was never one to be bothered with principles or ideas. Remember the "vision thing"? Fundamental rights never crossed his mind, nor the long range consequences, or the immediate meaning of his dullness.

Every time a country like America or a corporation like Microsoft bends over to kiss asses of tyrants, they weaken themselves and strengthen the tyrants. It is disgusting to see Microsoft ignore morality and cover the perfidy with contemptable rationalizations.

Microsoft has been showing signs of senescence for a long time now. A few years back, it hired a black woman as a vice president to direct "diversity." It did this in spite of having one of the very best records of any capitalist organization for hiring and promoting without regard to race, gender, or sexual orientation. It lead on diversity without pretentiously focusing on it. However, as corporate ossification set in, it started down the political correctness path.

Recently, Steve Balmer, now the CEO of Microsoft, announced that Microsoft will actively support pro-homosexual LEGISLATION. Apparently, the corporate dinosaurs can take no pressure now, and the pressure from homosexual Microsoft employee activists bent it into a pretzel.

My Microsoft stock valuation has been as stagnant as the corporate culture. I believe they are related. Now that Microsoft feels free to bed with tyrants to make a buck, it has declared its spine null and void, if not gone. I think I will start selling.