Larry Lessig: Time to reject corporate influence on Washington
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| Iconic Internet law professor Larry Lessig may have cast off plans for a
| congressional bid of his own, but he still wants to turn the political
| process as we know it upside down.
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http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9899828-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Related:
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
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| 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.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101200889.html
http://tinyurl.com/y2rbpu
Politicians in Microsoft's Pocket
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| Continuing on the theme of which politicians are receiving money from
| who. Here is a list of candidates who took money from MSFT.
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http://www.fonz.net/blog/archives/2007/06/04/politicians-in-microsofts-pocket/
Politics and tech companies: follow the money
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| 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 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
Yoohoo! EU Commission! Are you watching?
,----[ Quote ]
| Here's some repulsive news from Microsoft, in an article on Yahoo!
| News titled, "Microsoft pledges cash for IT in developing world" but
| which I would more accurately, I think, call, "Microsoft Finds New Way
| To Be Anticompetitive"...
|
| Please remember this day, next time someone tells you how
| philanthropic Mr. Gates is. Monopolies these days not only crush
| competition, they're willing to crush a charity to make a buck. I
| would say any apparent cooperation with OLPC, therefore, is just for
| show, folks. Those "technical" difficulties won't be solved, I figure,
| until this new market is glutted with Microsoft on Intel Classmates
| and Asus EEE's, loaded with XP, that old-fashioned operating system,
| and none of their laptops can do for those children what the OLPC XO
| can do. P.S. Children don't need training to use an OLPC XO. It's
| designed to not need it. I hope OLPC patented everything before they
| show Microsoft a thing. For real. Otherwise, someday we'll be looking
| for prior art to overturn a Microsoft patent or two.
|
| Yoohoo, EU Commission! Are you watching these maneuvers?
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http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080123114324664
Microsoft extends its education partnerships in Arab countries
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| During his visit to the Government Leaders Forum - Arabia in Abu Dhabi,
| Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates announced a number of partnerships aimed at
| driving IT development in Arabian countries. According to the Microsoft Press
| Centre, these include strategic partnerships between the Mohammed Bin Rashid
| Foundation and Microsoft to promote IT research via a "knowledge platform",
| and with the Dubai Cares organization to establish a further education
| programme for teachers and parents. Microsoft will also provide free email,
| messaging and online storage facilities to 650,000 high-school students in
| Oman in an arrangement similar to one the company recently set up with the
| Jordanian Universities Network.
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http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/102623/from/rss09
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