Tech Execs Paid Lobbyist $600,000
,----[ Quote ]
| The trade group, whose members include the chief executives of Applied
| Materials Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., Motorola Inc., Intel Corp., IBM Corp.
| and Dell Inc., paid the firm $300,000 in the second half of 2007 to lobby
| Congress, on trade policy, energy efficiency and heath care technology,
| according to a disclosure form posted online Feb. 13 by the Senate's public
| records office.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080306/technology_executives_lobbying.html?.v=1
KY Rep. Seeks To Ban Anonymous Blogging
,----[ Quote ]
| First rule of politics for incumbents: During an election year, try not to
| highlight your general uselessness, especially if you share a name with a
| famous football player, because people will notice.
`----
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/03/05/ky-rep-seeks-to-ban-anonymous-blogging
Land of the /free/. Taking congressmen to /free/ lunch and restricting people's
permission to speak /freely/.
Related and recent:
Mr. Microsoft goes to Washington
,----[ Quote ]
| As I suspected, Microsoft spends a whole lot more than that on lobbying. For
| the first half of last year, Microsoft spent $4.78 million on lobbying
| activities, according to the report it filed with Congress. It's full-year
| 2007 report is not yet available.
`----
http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9872573-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Tech Firms Paid Lobbyist $500,000
,----[ Quote ]
| More than 60 companies and trade associations, including Microsoft Corp. and
| Apple Inc., are members of Coalition for Patent Fairness. The coalition paid
| Patton Boggs to lobby Congress in support of patent legislation that passed
| the House last year but has stalled in the Senate.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080225/tech_companies_lobbying.html?.v=2
Software Group Lobbied on Patents
,----[ Quote ]
| The Business Software Alliance, whose members include Microsoft Corp. and
| Adobe Systems Inc., paid Emery Simon $260,000 in 2007 to lobby the federal
| government.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080228/business_software_alliance_lobbying.html?.v=1
Related:
Microsoft trying to derail Google/DoubleClick deal by lobbying congress
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has hired lobbying firm Patton Boggs LLC to do work on "competitive
| issues surrounding Google/DoubleClick [sic] merger."
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070816-microsoft-spends-40000-to-lobby-congress-about-googledoubleclick-merger.html
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
Politics and tech companies: follow the money
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061110-8194.html
Changing the Report, After the Vote
http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/01/commission
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
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/
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/
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
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 sponsors DIN conference
,----[ Quote ]
| An american company sponsors a lobby event for its Open XML format which is
| organised by the German standard body and takes place in a German ministry.
| Public officials and German rent-a-scientists join to listen to Microsoft and
| Bitkom.
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-28337/microsoft-sponsors-din-conference
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
Interview with Christian Fernandez, of Binary Freedom
,----[ Quote ]
| Unfortunately, companies like Microsoft have thrown around their
| financial and political weight to combat our work. They defeated a
| measure in Florida through lobbying and the only way this abuse will
| stop is if we continue to fight them.
`----
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/blogs/interview_christian_fernandez_binary_freedom
New MA Governor Proposes New - and Smaller - IT Bond Bill
,----[ Quote ]
| Unfortunately for the Information Technology Division (ITD) in
| particular, and state government in general, the new bill would
| provide only a fraction of the funding that would have been provided
| under last year's legislation. As proposed by Patrick, the bond would
| offer only $95 million, rather than the $250 million originally
| proposed. According to MHT, $75 million would be dedicated to
| planning and procurement, a further $15 million would fund a
| statewide system to mange performance and measure efficiency of
| agency databases, and $4.9 million would be given to the state
| attorney general's offices for IT projects.
|
| As a result, it the new bill will fall far short of accomplishing
| what had long been hoped by the ITD. This follows on the heels of
| damage already done, as stated by Gutierrez in his letter of
| resignation
|
| [...]
|
| What does this portend for ODF in Massachusetts, and what does
| it tell us about Deval Patrick's plans for the future?
|
| First, here's what I don't know: as you may recall, both
| Gutierrez and Microsoft lobbyist Brian Burke were appointed
| to a transition working group formed to advise governor-elect
| Patrick on IT matters.
`----
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20070315084848194
Q&A: Former Mass. CIO feels 'bittersweet pride' after battles with Microsoft,
legislature
,----[ Quote ]
| As CIO of Massachusetts from February to November last year, Louis
| Gutierrez had to endure most of the brunt of Microsoft Corp.'s political
| wrath over a state policy calling for the adoption of the Open Document
| Format for Office Applications, or ODF -- a rival to the software vendor's
| Office Open XML file format.
|
| [...]
|
| Do you see any reason for there to be two standards? If you were
| starting blank-slate, there certainly would not be value to creating
| two separate standards. Over time, it has sometimes been useful to
| have the competition of two standards to keep both sides honest.
| But I don't see particular value in the long-term co-existence of
| two separate standards.
`----
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9012760&source=rss_news50
,----[ Quote ]
| Quinn: Almost to a person, to anybody involved or who knows about
| the ODF issue, they attributed the story to Microsoft, right, wrong
| or otherwise. Senator Pacheco may be a bully but I do not believe he
| is disingenious and would stoop to such a tactic. Senator Pacheco and
| Secretary Galvin's office remain very heavily influenced by the
| Microsoft money and its lobbyist machine, as witnessed by their
| playbook and words, in my opinion.
|
| Quinn: I believe that the ODF decision will stand. I believe MS
| will continue to do anything and everything it can to stop it. And I
| know my seat wasn't even empty and they (MS) took another shot at
| the title, to no avail. This horse is out of the barn and I see no
| way for it to go back in. Remember, all we are asking for was and is
| for Microsoft to commit to open and the standards process; so
| everyone looks really bad if the plug gets pulled at this juncture.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060119232859729
MA Governor-Elect Names MS Anti-ODF Lobbyist to Technology Advisory Group
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20061128161343183
The Sorry State of Massachusetts
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=2006111603531029
Microsoft offers schools in Mass. free software (to stop ODF adoption)
http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-6090196.html?part=rss&tag=6090196&subj=news
Microsoft plays Massachusetts Senate card
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32515
|
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