Another Halloween Memo??

It is being reported that Microsoft sent a Memo to Microsoft partners in Sweden, telling them to join the Swedish Institute of Standards and vote yes on OOXML.

Apparently it states that partners are "expected" to join the standards insitute and "participate on the meeting the 27/8, to vote yes to Open XML”.

The partner companies are also asked to participate in some additional meeting after the ballot, this to "show their good judgment".

For the partners that do not feel they are adequately knowledgeable about the subject, Microsoft offers ready-made arguments as to why Office Open XML should be accepted by SIS.

”[The partner companies] do not need to discuss the technical contents in the specification but should be prepared to offer a few arguments as to why they vote yes - these will be provided by Microsoft", the company writes. The fee for joining SIS is 15 000 SEK [appx $1200] and the partnership companies will have to cover this themselves, but the software giant offers "marketing support" and "additional support in the form of Microsoft resources" to the partners that join and participate in the ballot.

Now if this really is true and the memo does exist its just more ammunition against Microsoft. I'm sure the EU commission will be interested to find that, as expected, Microsoft is still involved in illegal practices, corruption and vote rigging.