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"Where does the pressure come from?"
,----[ Quote ]
| Peter Jungen and the EEI wonder if openness rhetorics risks turning Europe
| into an innovation "dead zone".
`----
http://www.digistan.org/forum/t-121737/where-does-the-pressure-come-from
When All You Have Is A Patent Hammer, Every Software Task Looks Like A Nail
,----[ Quote ]
| If I'm right that, as I argued on Friday, there's a cultural gap between the
| patent bar and the technology industry on the subject of software patents, an
| interesting question is how we got them in the first place. After all, it
| wasn't that long ago that software was widely believed to be unpatentable,
| and major technology firms were hardly clamoring for patent protection. Peter
| Mennell, a Berkeley law professor who spoke at last Wednesday's Brookings
| patent conference had an interesting perspective on how this came about. He
| argues that the impetus for software patents came from patent attorneys
| within major software firms who spread the "gospel of patenting" within their
| companies. Not surprisingly, CEOs tend to delegate patent issues to their
| patent lawyers, and of course patent lawyers will tend to have more
| pro-patent views than their bosses. And so despite the fact that few
| technology executives were enthusiastic about patenting, the patent lawyers
| who worked for them pushed their firms in that direction. And of course, once
| some software firms started acquiring significant numbers of patents, it
| sparked the arms race that we've talked about here at Techdirt.
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20090115/0534153420.shtml
Recent:
Microsoft's lobbying tab dwarfs Google's tally
,----[ Quote ]
| The most recent federal disclosure forms offer a stark reminder of Microsoft
| Corp.'s mighty Washington presence: The software giant's tab of almost $2
| million for the third quarter alone nearly equaled the amount its rival
| Google Inc. spent in the first nine months of the year.
`----
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jMfxjZq7UKZCiE64N9AUdh0P8pWAD94D3HI01
Mr. Microsoft goes to Congress: Technology becomes political
,----[ Quote ]
| Over the past few years, the technology industry has discovered that those
| pesky bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. actually wield a lot of power.
| Microsoft, in particular, learned years ago that a little money goes a long
| way to stave off antitrust lawyers, as suggested by The New York Times.
|
| [...]
|
| There are good reasons for this: Microsoft has spent quite a bit of time
| (and, apparently, money) this year trying to convince Congress to put the
| kibosh on the Google-Yahoo advertising deal, as reported in The New York
| Times, and ultimately succeeding. Last week Google abandoned the deal in the
| face of an antitrust fight, one no doubt founded in part on Microsoft's
| lobbying cash. Microsoft learned the hard way that money can make Washington,
| D.C. work for it...with just a few million dollars' worth of influence.
|
| Gone are the days of two entrepreneurs in a garage, changing the world. As
| technology becomes a critical part of the global economy, lobbying and
| lawyers have become de rigueur. This year Microsoft is the big spender on
| Capitol Hill, but as Google comes under fire for privacy and other concerns,
| it will no doubt be next.
`----
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10096115-16.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheOpenRoad
Microsoft spent more than $2.3M to lobby in 2Q
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/07/31/ap5276736.html
Microsoft Leads Tech Lobbying Pack
,----[ Quote ]
| "As tech becomes more mainstream, you'll see even more spending on lobbying,"
| Microsoft spokesperson Ginny Terzano said.
`----
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Government/Microsoft-Leads-Tech-Lobbying-Pack/
Microsoft Taps Legal Czar [Lobbyist] Amid EU, OOXML Woes
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft announced Monday it has hired a former European diplomat to lead
| its dealings with the European Union (EU).
`----
http://www.internetnews.com/government/article.php/3750596
Google and Yahoo Small Fries In Lobbying
,----[ Quote ]
| When it comes to lobbying Congress, Google and Yahoo are relative
| lightweights compared to other companies. Both companies combined spent about
| $1.3 million last quarter--$730,000 from Google and $630,000 from Yahoo.
| Microsoft nearly doubled them, and Verizon, as a single company, has spent
| three times as much as all three.
|
| [...]
|
| Last year a total of $2.82 billion was spent lobbying Congress, according to
| OpenSecrets.org, and 2008 is well on its way to surpassing the $3 billion
| mark.
`----
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/07/31/google-and-yahoo-small-fries-in-lobbying
Related:
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
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
Legal blow to secret government lobbying
,----[ Quote ]
| The Department of Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) has lost
| an appeal to keep secret its meetings with business lobbying group the
| Confederation of British Industry.
|
| The case has dragged on for three years and originally concerned secret
| meetings between the CBI and BERR, which was formerly known as the Department
| of Trade and Industry.
|
| [...]
|
| The victory is a big filip for the wider movement, led by the Alliance for
| Lobbying Transparency, to force the UK government to introduce more
| transparency into its dealings with lobbying groups. ALT is calling for
| compulsory registration of lobby groups and a record of their meetings with
| politicians and civil servants.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/02/berr_lobby_openess/
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