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[News] Shills Association for Anti-Competitive Technology (ACT) Fights for RAND

[Analysis of the Association for Anti-Competitive Technology (ACT), which wants
anti-FOSS laws.]

(Still) Defending Openness in the EU

,----[ Quote ]
| Both posts now have extensive postings from Mark Blafkin, who is Vice 
| President for Public Affairs at the Association for Competitive Technology 
| (ACT). It bills itself as “protecting small business innovation”, but it also 
| boasts “several Sponsor Members including eBay, Microsoft, Oracle, Orbitz and 
| VeriSign.” Significantly, its offices are located in Washington in the US, 
| and in Brussels in the EU: in other words, it's a lobbying organisation aimed 
| at swaying the two most powerful political machines.      
| 
| Mr Blafkin's comments are worth reading in full, because they provide 
| fascinating insight into the current tack taken by those pushing agendas 
| based around proprietary software and intellectual monopolies. I've added a 
| few quick comments myself to the posts mentioned above, but here I'd like to 
| explore further two major themes that emerge from Mr Blafkin's arguments.   
`---- 

http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?blogid=14&entryid=1006

Microsoft Calls EU Fine "Excessive"

,----[ Quote ]
| The Commission said it issued the fine because Microsoft did not follow an 
| order in 2004 from Brussels to offer information to competitors on reasonable 
| terms.  
`----

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/07/07/microsoft-calls-eu-fine-excessive
http://tinyurl.com/6347fv

Will ACT fight the EU and Kroes with some more insults this time around?


Related:

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/


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


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/


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 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

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