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With Yahoo-Google deal nixed, DoJ antitrust chief resigns
,----[ Quote ]
| It looks like presiding over the death of the Yahoo-Google ad deal will be
| one of the final acts of Thomas Barnett, the Assistant Attorney General who
| headed the Justice Department's Antitrust Division since June 2005.
|
| Barnett announced his resignation today, effective Nov. 19.
`----
http://blog.internetnews.com/kcorbin/2008/11/with-yahoogoogle-deal-nixed-do.html
Obama Lawyers Ready Their Plan for DOJ
,----[ Quote ]
| For more than a month, a squad of lawyers has been gathering for the first
| Justice Department transition in the post-9/11 world. Now that their
| candidate has won, they're at the gates -- or rather, the 20-foot-high
| aluminum doors of Main Justice -- waiting for President-elect Barack Obama
| and President George W. Bush to finalize the rules for information-sharing
| and access during the transition.
`----
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202425894738
They should sack all the staff and start over. The DoJ became a disgrace
because it's filled with cronies of mega corporations, Microsoft included.
Recent:
Microsoft lobbies to fight Yahoo-Google pact
,----[ Quote ]
| In an article Tuesday, Roll Call quoted a "knowledgeable tech industry
| source" as saying:
|
| "Microsoft is pulling out every favor it's got ... It has a very close
| relationship with DOJ and the White House, and all of that pressure is being
| brought to bear."
`----
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/151528.asp?source=rss
Related:
Microsoft-DOJ Joint Status Report June 17, 2008
,----[ Quote ]
| How does that sound to you? Like a plan? Where is the goal post? I mean the
| final one? Of course, if Microsoft (oops!) keeps changing protocols, it will
| take longer even than this generous time frame.
|
| Same old, same old. Move the goal post. Vaporous promises. And that is what I
| fear they will continue to do with OOXML, if it's ever approved, because they
| can. Who will stop them? ISO? They seemed to fall into Stockholm Syndrome
| long ago, the few that were not replaced with Microsoft folks. What is the
| effect of Microsoft changing the protocols in the compliance work?
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080620164127151
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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