Microsoft in row over lobby tactics
,----[ Quote ]
| The Observer has seen an email sent by a director at leading lobby firm
| Burson-Marsteller to a number of top UK businesses. The email urges board
| members to raise the issue of Google's dominance of search engines with
| politicians, regulators and the media.
`----
http://money.guardian.co.uk/news_/story/0,,2174794,00.html
Amazing. Microsoft is not a company. It's a monster.
Feeling tinfoilish? $5 billion suit against Google over privacy, terrorism
,----[ Quote ]
| To wit, Mr. Jayne has filed suit against Google and its founders for
| supposed "crimes against humanity," aiding terrorism, and putting his
| personal safety at risk. The Pennsylvania man filed the suit on Tuesday with
| a federal court, and asks for $5 billion in damages. That's right: five
| billion dollars.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070923-feeling-tinfoilish-5-billion-suit-against-google-over-privacy-terrorism.html
http://tinyurl.com/2828aw
Many of the coordinated attacks in Europe are said to have come from Microsoft
and its ilk (partners) as well. Now Google faces the EU's wrath, so it's not
just Microsoft and AT&T with the FTC.
Google Asks EU's OK of DoubleClick Buy
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corp. — which also had wanted to buy DoubleClick — said its views
| had not changed since April when it warned that the deal "raised serious
| competition and privacy concerns" by giving unprecedented control over online
| advertising.
|
| To help make its case against the DoubleClick deal, Microsoft plans to send
| its general counsel to Washington next week to testify at a U.S. Senate
| hearing scheduled to examine whether the proposed acquisition would undermine
| competition and consumer privacy rights.
`----
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gjlFrxpOtagL0oJmWNNBTeeu5ySA
Recent:
Google Apps Catches Flak
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is launching an anti-Google propaganda campaign.
`----
http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2007/09/11/google-apps-catches-flak/?mod=yahoo_hs
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 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 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/
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
Yahoo!, Microsoft ink web pact with Chinese government
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft and Yahoo! have signed a pact with the Chinese government
| that "encourages" the big name web players to record the identities of
| bloggers and censor content. So says Reporters Without Borders, an
| organization that fights for journalistic rights across the globe.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/24/yahoo_and_microsoft_ink_chinese_blogging_pact/
|
|
