Microsoft: We are more than 20 or 30 “pelagatos”..and we are watching you
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Liberacion Digital, is a Chilean activist group created in 2007 after a controversial agreement between the government of this country and Microsoft.
A couple of days ago, one of Microsoft top executives, reacted very upset because of the permanent complaints promoted by this group and called Liberacion Digital a bunch of “no more than 20 or 30 pelagatos”.
Pelagatos is a slang word (related with to the word “cats”) and it´s considered offensive in Chile.
In fact, according to the Spanish Royal Academy of Language, pelagato means : Persona insignificante o mediocre, sin posición social o económica. That is: “An insignificant and mediocre person, without social or economic position”.
Well, Microsoft may be right. We are perhaps a bunch of pelagatos.
However, what Microsoft still does not understand is that we are far more than 20 or 30 insignificant guys.
There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of people around the world, tired of witnessing the monopolistic and predatory behaviour of corporations such as Microsoft. We are some of those.
We are a network of committed citizens.Common people that fights for what we believe.
We are not here to protect the interest of the powerful ones. We are here to protect us.
And we are not willing to tolerate the abuses, the insults and the bigotry of those who believe that the power of a corporation can defy the power of the people.
As a part of the pelagatos I think it was a very offensive vocabulary. I can understand that they don`t like what we are doing (and maybe we should be doing it better in many ways) but that does not give him the right to say that.
oh my cat!!
They call me “micronauta”, I work in the music and media 2.0 business, and I’m
gaypelagato too.Oh my God. Now in english the madness continues. Why don’t you listen to FT in humble spanish?
Microsoft is a virus. I’m considering to switch to Linux