Fiji government declares war on Microsoft’s Media Center plans
By John Lister
An apparent international misunderstanding has led to the Fiji government attacking Microsoft. But thankfully for the departing Bill Gates, he’s receiving a missive rather than a missile.
The interim attorney-general of Fiji, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, has published a letter he’s sent to Gates after reports that Microsoft is planning to launch a product named ‘Windows Fiji’.
“As a sovereign state the government asserts its absolute ownership over the use of the word ‘Fiji’ and reserves all its rights under all relevant laws to protect and defend the use of the word ‘Fiji’,” the letter reads. It goes on “Microsoft Corporation is hereby instructed to immediately cease and desist with any use of the word ‘Fiji’ in relation to any of its products now or in the future.”
Unfortunately Fiji’s government is acting on duff information. As we reported last year, ‘Fiji’ is an internal codename for the next edition of the Windows Media Center, the software designed for watching online television and radio shows.
The source of the misunderstanding appears to be a Fijian website named fijilive.com. It recently reported that reporters at the Ars Technica news site had seen screenshots of the new software which showed it would be called ‘Windows Fiji’.
However, the original story on Ars Technica doesn’t say that. Instead it points to a screenshot suggesting the finished title will be ‘Windows Vista Media Center Feature Pack 2008’.
With the confusion having built-up into such anger, you might be thinking Microsoft has finally taken on a bigger opponent. But in fact, the company’s $11 billion annual profit is more than double Fiji’s gross domestic product.
Still, Microsoft isn’t taking any chances. A spokesman made it clear there’s no intention of using the ‘Fiji’ name in a commercial release and did his best to suck up by saying staff chose the project name because “it reflects the project team’s affection for Fiji as a great country to visit.”
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