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Microsoft's Facebook stake influenced ConnectU case
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| But what the transcripts show was just how much Microsoft inadvertently
| influenced the proceedings.
|
| Last fall, Microsoft paid $240 million to acquire a 1.6 percent share of
| Facebook. The day that news of the deal broke, headlines screamed that
| Facebook was worth $15 billion based on Microsoft's investment.
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http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9983579-7.html
Related:
Microsoft Finds Legal Defender in Justice Dept.
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| 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.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/business/10microsoft.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Microsoft trying to derail Google/DoubleClick deal by lobbying congress
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| Microsoft has hired lobbying firm Patton Boggs LLC to do work on "competitive
| issues surrounding Google/DoubleClick [sic] merger."
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http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070816-microsoft-spends-40000-to-lobby-congress-about-googledoubleclick-merger.html
A Czar for the Digital Peasants
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| One sure sign of a lack of political vision is a rise in the number of pieces
| of acronymic legislation. After September 11, the US Congress passed the
| euphoniously named “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing
| Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act” the
| initials of which spell out “USA – Patriot.” The Patriot Act is a pretty bad
| piece of legislation, but at least its drafters worked hard on the acronyms
| so that opponents could be labelled “anti-patriot” – a perfect level of
| analysis for Fox News. Admittedly, in this administration, having public
| officials torturing acronyms rather than detainees might be counted as a
| plus, but I still find the whole practice distasteful. I'd suggest that
| politicians vow to vote against any piece of legislation with its own
| normatively loaded acronym, no matter how otherwise appealing. It might make
| them focus a little more on the content.
|
| In any event, Congress has been at it again. The House just passed, and the
| Senate is considering, the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for
| Intellectual Property Act of 2008 – or “Pro-IP” Act. (If it passes, a version
| is sure to be urged on Europe as a matter of “harmonisation.”) Are you
| pro-intellectual property? Then surely you must be for this piece of
| legislation! The name says it all.
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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/14aacbc8-41e1-11dd-a5e8-0000779fd2ac.html
Kroes slams US criticism of EU Microsoft ruling
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| 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.”
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http://www.eupolitix.com/EN/News/200709/87884c7c-c721-49b1-b6f0-5ba4ece0897c.htm
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