My point about the standards was not to do with HOW they obtained the standard..it was the fact they have pushed one standard as much as other people have pushed theirs.
If they have used underhand tactics to push the standard through then definitely shame on Microsoft

I disagree with your definition of piracy

A 17-old using someone else’s work without paying for it is still piracy

I don’t work for free, but I wish to, I wish money wasn’t the reason I work but something really better. I need to eat and thus have to work for money. That’s a very personal thing I believe in. I don’t think it’s possible to apply it.

I won’t go point by point, but there was corruption in the process of choosing the OOXML. MS and other use poor and corrupt countries to actually create a web of sympathetic vote : http://blog.ngowiki.net/2008/04/03/your-document-is-corrupted-ii/

Corruption is a strong word, like piracy is a strong word. Did MS pay to have people vote on their side, probably not, is the 17 years old kid a pirate because he shares music through P2P. It’s not piracy it’s just “copying”

Now as overall, does MS merit all that respect, does a company that has been convicted several times of abusing of its monopolist position be the repository of our work, our information.

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” Lord Acton 1887.

So goes Bill Gates

People create software and it’s up to them to decide if they get money for it

Do you work for free?

Microsoft tax? Yeah i agree that this is a bit wrong but if you complain enough to your computer dealer you can decline to use Windows and get your money back

DRM? YOUR files, that YOU create, are YOURS to do with as you please. Music & Video you buy elsewhere are not YOUR files which is why DRM exists…this isn’t Microsoft’s fault

Gratuitous incompatibilities - how so? If i’ve got Office 2003 they is a FREE download that lets me work with Office 2007…no-one is forcing me to upgrade

Standard Corruption? Maybe/maybe not - they have pushed ONE standard…then again so have IBM - does that make them corrupt?

Whatever the foundation is or isn’t doing wrong…it’s not the Microsoft foundation - it’s the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation

I think you need to be a bit more open minded instead of bashing other companies for the sake of it