[thelist] [Fwd: "Dual-copyright/licensing" of your IP withOUT your permission]

[Don Makoviney]

That is a moot point on many fronts:

1. They have the most money. . .so proportionately it would make sense.

2. They are also getting sued the most. . . .so it also makes sense.
Considering the barrage of court cases against Microsoft over the past few
years, that is no surprise that their contributions have risen sharply.

3. Sun, Netscape(R.I.P), Oracle, and many others have done the same thing in
the past. How do you think they got the governments attention in the first
place to start suing the he|| out of them? There was an article about three
years ago that said that MS was severely LAGGING behind other soft money
conrtibutors like Oracle, Sun, and whatnot. Looks to me like they are just
playing a bit of catch-up.

DM

-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel J. Cody [mailto:djc at starkmedia.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2001 2:23 PM
To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject: Re: [thelist] [Fwd: "Dual-copyright/licensing" of your IP
withOUT your permission]


I've asked Bryan for clarification on that point, but my understanding 
is that MS is now one of, if not *the*, largest conrtributer of 
soft-money over the past 18 months(election cycle) in the tech sector.

check out opensecrets.org, they have a nice database of largest or 
contributions.. and just from one quick lookup, MS contributed < 1.5 
million over the past year alone.

i remember how slow they were to get into lobbying too.. then they 
started getting their asses kicked around in lawsuits and finally wised up..

.djc.

scott.brady at homeqonline.com wrote:

> 
>> 5.  *MOST IMPORTANTLY*:  Microsoft is currently the biggest lobbyist
>> of the US government, and expends the most in legal costs of any
>> American company.  Lawyers are difference between something just
>> being just "unethical and not legally binding" and "unethical but
>> quite legal binding and quite enforcable."

> This one seems to be the one that most needs some supporting information.
I
> find it hard to believe that Microsoft is the "biggest" lobbyist,
especially
> considering how slow they were to even start getting involved in lobbying.
> 
> I'm not saying that he's wrong or that he's right, but I need evidence one
way
> or the other.  Otherwise, it seems like blind Microsoft-bashing.


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