Re: Contractor rights
It pains me to do this as I'm a xNIX person, and no fan of Redmond (in fact, I live in it), and so much more likely to sound like Bombastic Bob than makes me personally comfortable, and so:
Bill's (formerly unchallenged) greed has absolutely nothing to do with anything at Microsoft these days. Oh, the Interns know who he is a vague way (seriously!) but Bill drives around Bellevue in a minivan and is a great deal more interested in other things (according to El Reg, Poop, specifically) these days. Bill is not, nor has he been for some time, responsible for the retarded shit-storm that is today's Microsoft. Ballmer set much in motion, and adjusting with both nudges AND hammers we have SatNad who is quite firmly in control, and thus, to blame.
I don't mind calling out villany, just make sure you get the right villan. (Oracle and Amazon continue to make this easy.)