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Microsoft gains familiar ally in IE antitrust battle in Europe
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corp. gained a familiar ally in its latest antitrust battle with
| the European Commission today when the Association for Competitive Technology
| (ACT) was accepted as an interested third party in the case.
|
| [...]
|
| Washington-based ACT, whose members include Microsoft, Oracle, eBay and
| dozens of smaller companies, stood by Microsoft in an earlier European
| antitrust case that resulted in the software vendor being found guilty of
| monopoly abuse in 2004. The group made passionate arguments in favor of
| Microsoft during hearings held by the EC and the appeals process at the
| European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg.
`----
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9131834
ACT backs Microsoft in Brussels' IE legal spat
,----[ Quote ]
| The Association for Competitive Technology has been accepted as an interested
| third party in the case.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/21/act_supports_ie_eu_case/
Not a word about it being just a Microsoft shill, created by Microsoft in
antitrust days (1998). This group is responsible for "letters from dead
people", but it had a different umbrella name, ATL.
Recent:
EU open-source document reflects Microsoft influence
,----[ Quote ]
| One such editor is Jonathan Zuck, president of the Association for
| Competitive Technology, a lobbying organization with strong ties to
| Microsoft. There is nothing wrong with Microsoft making its voice heard in
| the software strategy development process, as it stands to gain or lose much
| in the process, but it does make for some interesting political gamesmanship
| in the document.
|
| While the draft doesn't make it obvious who is saying what, there are
| numerous instances where editors have tried to soften the appeal of open
| source or downplay its significance, repeatedly trying to insist that open
| source not be called out as more significant than proprietary software.
`----
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10193433-16.html
Recent:
How to Hijack an EU Open Source Strategy Paper
,----[ Quote ]
| Others as in Microsoft and mates.
|
| All-in-all, the modifications to the document provide a fascinating insight
| into how lobbyists operate in their attempt to neuter threats to their
| constituencies through the shameless evisceration and outright inversion of
| content. Fortunately, when the final strategy document comes out, we will be
| able to pinpoint exactly where ACT's agenda has been inserted. Of course,
| before then we need to make the above document as widely known as possible,
| so that the relevant people at the European Union are aware of what's going
| on, and maybe even take action to prevent this gross distortion of the
| paper's purpose.
|
| In addition, we must ensure that Wikileaks can continue to provide its
| invaluable service. The world of openness – including open source - would be
| the poorer without it. To that end, we need to support its current call for
| funds to help it carry on its work, and I urge you to make a donation,
| however modest.
`----
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/how-hijack-eu-open-source-strategy-paper
European Commission OSS Strategy Draft, Mar 2009
,----[ Quote ]
| This file is an edited version of the EU OSS Strategy draft with the input of
| Jonathan Zuck, President of the Association for Competitive Technology, an
| organisation that has strong ties with Microsoft[1]
|
| The file is a draft for an expert panel formed by the European Commission.
| This panel is divided into workgroup (IPR, Open Source, digital life, etc.)
| ACT and Comptia have been infiltrating every workgroup, even the one on Open
| Source (WG 7). They are doing the best they can to drown any initiative that
| would not only promote OSS in Europe but also that could help Europe create a
| sucessful European software sector.
|
| The audience for this document could be journalists who would be interested
| in getting to know more how lobbies of all kind influence the European
| institutions. Here it is perhaps even more stringent as ACT is clearly an US
| organization with ties to Microsoft. Verifications might not be easy as this
| is an internal draft. The best contact might be commission personnel:
| Lars.PEDERSEN@xxxxxxxxxxxx ; Michel.Lacroix@xxxxxxxxxxxx
|
| It has been leaked as it is important to have the public know how actual
| policy making is being influenced by lobbies that are precisely under the
| legal scrutiny of the European Commission. The urgency of the publication of
| this document is real in the sense that outside pressure would foce the
| Commission to "clean the committees" or at least give a lesser credit to the
| work of this workgroup.
`----
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/European_Commission_OSS_Strategy_Draft%2C_Mar_2009
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