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[News] [Rival] Thomas Barnett Protects Monopolies in the Department of Justice

  • Subject: [News] [Rival] Thomas Barnett Protects Monopolies in the Department of Justice
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 03:29:55 +0000
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Organization: Netscape / schestowitz.com
  • User-agent: KNode/0.10.4
DOJ antitrust chief: Broadband industry is 'dynamic,' competitive

,----[ Quote ]
| Barnett is the same official who recently argued against the need for a 
| lengthier period of government oversight on Microsoft's antitrust agreement 
| with the government. Also under his tenure, the megamerger of AT&T and 
| BellSouth received unconditional approval from his agency, although it did 
| propose conditions on AT&T's recent purchase of the rural wireless carrier 
| Dobson Communications      
`----

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9826225-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

So now we have the names of insiders who defend monopoly abusers (the DoJ has a
terrible track record when it comes to Microsoft and it was slammed harshly by
the EU and the American Antitrust Institute). More below.


Yestrday:

Microsoft Finds Legal Defender in Justice Dept.

,----[ Quote ]
| Nearly a decade after the government began its landmark effort to break 
| up Microsoft, the Bush administration has sharply changed course by
| repeatedly defending the company both in the United States and abroad 
| against accusations of anticompetitive conduct, including the recent
| rejection of a complaint by Google.
| 
| [...]
| 
| In the most striking recent example of the policy shift, the top 
| antitrust official at the Justice Department last month urged state
| prosecutors to reject a confidential antitrust complaint filed by 
| Google that is tied to a consent decree that monitors Microsoft's 
| behavior. Google has accused Microsoft of designing its latest 
| operating system, Vista, to discourage the use of Google's desktop 
| search program, lawyers involved in the case said. 
`----

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/business/10microsoft.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin


US Justice Department objects to states' effort to extend Microsoft oversight
to 2012

,----[ Quote ]
| "There is no basis for the court to order a five-year extension of the final 
| judgments," the Justice Department said in a court filing Friday, citing a 
| lack of evidence provided by the states that such oversight is justified.  
`----

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/10/business/NA-FIN-COM-US-Microsoft-Antitrust.php


U.S. Won't Extend Microsoft Antitrust Sanctions

.----[ Quote ]
| The U.S. Department of Justice said it will not seek to extend the
| restrictions placed on Microsoft Corp.'s business practices
| following its antitrust settlement with the U.S. government in 2002.
|
| Many of the restrictions are due to expire Nov. 12, and last week
| several U.S. states filed motions in favor of extending them for a
| further five years. Four of those states -- New York, Maryland,
| Louisiana and Florida -- had previously said they opposed an
| extension.
|
| The DOJ had also opposed the extension, and on Friday it made it
| clear that it would not be making a turnabout like the four U.S.
| states.
|
| [...]
|
| The DOJ didn't explain its decision Friday. In August it said it
| felt the judgment had been successful in preventing Microsoft from
| continuing its exclusionary behavior.
|
| The states who favor an extension disagree. They say operating
| systems haven't evolved as quickly as people thought they would in
| 2002, and that Microsoft could still use the dominance of Internet
| Explorer to choke competitors in the emerging Web 2.0 world.
|
| A status hearing that will likely address extending the
| restrictions is scheduled for Nov. 6 with District Court Judge
| Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.
|
| The other states pushing for an extension are California,
| Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Massachusetts and the
| District of Columbia.
|
| Separately last month the DOJ raised hackles in Europe by
| criticizing the European Union's decision to reject Microsoft's
| appeal of its antitrust decision there.
`----

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,138727-pg,1/article.html


Justice Department Cites Linux As Example of Successful Antitrust Enforcement

http://www.linuxelectrons.com/news/linux/11543/justice-department-cites-linux-example-successful-antitrust-enforcement


States seek more oversight of Microsoft

,----[ Quote ]
| A group of states led by California said in a court filing Thursday that 
| ending oversight of Microsoft's business practices in November would not 
| allow enough time to consider the antitrust implications of Windows Vista.  
`----

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070830/ap_on_hi_te/microsoft_antitrust_2


Kroes slams US criticism of EU Microsoft ruling

,----[ Quote ]
| Kroes said that it was "unacceptable" that a representative of the US 
| judiciary should criticise a court of law outside his jurisdiction. 
| 
| “It is absolutely not done,” she told journalists on Wednesday.
| 
| “The European commission does not pass judgement on US rulings and we should 
| expect the same from the US.” 
`----

http://www.eupolitix.com/EN/News/200709/87884c7c-c721-49b1-b6f0-5ba4ece0897c.htm


Microsoft, The European Union, and the United States: A Statement by the AAI

,----[ Quote ]
| The AAI comments on the European Court of First Instance's upholding of the 
| EC's Microsoft decision, taking the USDOJ to task for poor diplomacy and 
| mistaken policy in its criticism of the EC.  
`----

http://www.antitrustinstitute.org/Archives/miceu3.ashx


Microsoft sets spinners on court verdict

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft may have lost in court, but it quickly tried to win the war of 
| media reaction via organisations like CompTIA, the Computing Technology 
| Industry Association and ACT (the Association for Competitive Technology) 
| which both intervened in court on its side.   
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/17/reaction_microsoft_verdict/


US politicians go to bat for Microsoft

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/26/microsoft_eu_political_lobbying/


Report Says Nonprofits Sold Influence to Abramoff

,----[ Quote ]
| E-mails released by the committee show that Abramoff, often
| with the knowledge of the groups' leaders, exploited the tax-exempt
| status and leveraged the stature of the organizations to build
| support among conservatives for legislation or government action
| sought by clients including Microsoft Corp., mutual fund company
| DH2 Inc., Primedia Inc.'s Channel One Network, and Brown-Forman,
| maker of Jack Daniel's whiskey.
`----

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101200889.html
http://tinyurl.com/y2rbpu


Politicians in Microsoft's Pocket

,----[ Quote ]
| Continuing on the theme of which politicians are receiving money from 
| who. Here is a list of candidates who took money from MSFT.
`----

http://www.fonz.net/blog/archives/2007/06/04/politicians-in-microsofts-pocket/


US states slam Google, Firefox as no match for Microsoft

,----[ Quote ]
| Ten states and the District of Columbia made the unusual claim to try to show 
| that the operating system and browser spaces had changed much more slowly 
| than expected in 2002, when state regulators and the US Department of Justice 
| brokered a deal with Microsoft in a long-running antitrust case against the 
| company. The lack of change, they said, means that potential competitors need 
| more time -- and judicial protection -- if they are to develop into real 
| rivals to Microsoft.      
`----

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1733605800;fp;16;fpid;1


Politics and tech companies: follow the money

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft took first place with $651,100 given out, while
| Hewlett-Packard gave only $185,550, and Gateway gave a paltry
| $2,000. Microsoft's donations certainly illustrate well the true
| size of the company and the extent of its political concerns.
`----

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061110-8194.html


Microsoft Paid Lobbyist $160,000

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Paid Paid Bingham McCutchen $160,000 to Lobby Federal Gov't in 
| First Half of 2007 
`----

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070905/microsoft_lobbying.html?.v=1


Microsoft's 'Men in Black' kill Florida open standards legislation

,----[  Quote
| It was just a bit of text advocating open data formats that was slipped into
| a Florida State Senate bill at the last minute with no fanfare, but within
| 24 hours three Microsoft-paid lobbyists, all wearing black suits, were
| pressuring members of the Senate Committee on Governmental Operations
| (COGO) to remove the words they didn't like from Senate bill 1974. 
`----

http://enterprise.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/04/16/2019244&from=rss


Microsoft Looks for the Big Guns in OOXML In-Fighting

,----[ Quote ]
| Bill Gates has reportedly been making phone calls to the Secretary of Defense 
| and the Secretary of Commerce to push the American National Standards 
| Institute to ignore the votes of its advisory committees and vote "yes" on 
| ISO standardizing Microsoft's Open Office XML (OOXML) format, the one in 
| competition with the OpenDocument Format (ODF) pushed by IBM and Sun.    
| 
| Gates reportedly picked up the phone when the last INCITS ballot failed by 
| one vote to support Microsoft. 
`----

http://xml.sys-con.com/read/419573_p.htm

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