Geek Fight!

Only it isn't really actually geeks anymore. It is two monster corporate entities going at one another. Microsoft is attacking Google – very publicly. The opening salvo was from one of Microsoft's top attorneys.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association of Publishers in New York, Thomas C. Rubin, Microsoft's associate general counsel, devoted much of his remarks to an attack on Google's practice of copying entire books into its database, often without the permission of copyright holders.

"It systematically violates copyright and deprives authors and publishers of an important avenue for monetizing their works," Rubin said, according to prepared remarks. "In doing so, it undermines critical incentives to create."

Microsoft's salvo came as the software giant faces mounting pressure from Google, which is increasingly extending its reach beyond the Web search that made it the darling of the technology industry.

Last month, Google began selling an online productivity suite, including e-mail, calendar and Web services, that competes with Microsoft's Office software. Google also continues to extend its substantial lead over Microsoft in Web searching, an area where Microsoft has struggled and that remains the main way users navigate the Internet.

Microsoft is taking the position that Google needs to be curbed by publishing companies. Now I have been through a very, very bad week due to Microsoft Windows XP. So I'm not exactly unbiased here. At the same time, every stinking time I tried to install updates to various products, they "offered" to install various Google software for me, just for my convenience. Sure. Both of these companies are behaving as if they own your computer because you use their software. There is a basic problem with that whole mentality.