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Microsoft's Lobbying Priorities: Limiting Open Source

Posted by michael on from the boston-strangler-analogies-abound dept.

MonkeyDev writes "In the story on cio.com, 'Mr. Gates Goes to Washington', the author says...'Microsoft cared little for politics until the Department of Justice called it a monopoly. Now the company approaches lobbying the way it approaches everything- aggressively-and consequently it dominates the technology policy agenda.' The article outlines Microsoft's power, provides several examples of legislative decisions heavily influenced by the company, and talks about where they are aiming their newly found political clout. 'Microsoft's policy agenda includes issues that many CIOs agree with, notably more government funding for research and development, stronger copyright protection, and free trade in offshore products and services. However, two of Microsoft's policy priorities, limiting the adoption of open-source software and inoculating technology companies from spam liability, stand out as areas wherein what's good for Microsoft may not be good for all CIOs.' Further, 'Microsoft has lobbied particularly hard against open source, helping kill state bills that advocate for open source in Oregon and Texas. Microsoft argues that open source freezes innovation, and Krumholtz says that commercial software alone spurs economic growth and creates jobs.'"

11 of 592 comments (clear)

  1. Oh No... by Code+Dark · · Score: 5, Funny

    If Bill Gates runs for President, I'll be very sad. "We're not a monopoly... but, uh, we will be your rulers! Where do you want to go today?"

    --
    - Code Dark
    1. Re:Oh No... by Bull999999 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I, for one, welcome... No!!! What the hell was I thinking!!!

      --
      1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d t0 g37 l41d
    2. Re:Oh No... by Starsmore · · Score: 5, Funny
      "Mister Gates, when did you realize that you were creating a monopoly?"

      "Monopoly is a fucking game, Senator, I'm trying to take over the world. First we had Information Technology, 'IT'. Next is Total Information Technology. 'TIT'. Cause when you are sucking on my TIT, I've got you by the motherboard."

      Robin Williams rocks.

      --
      "If Common Sense was so common, it wouldn't be such a valued trait."
    3. Re:Oh No... by Geno+Z+Heinlein · · Score: 3, Funny

      If Bill Gates runs for President, I'll be very sad. "We're not a monopoly... but, uh, we will be your rulers! Where do you want to go today?"

      Soviet Russia!!!

      --
      Five percent of one year's DoD budget puts us on Mars.
    4. Re:Oh No... by antiMStroll · · Score: 3, Funny

      The same way the current admistration is good for Haliburton? Not a good idea.

  2. Oh yeah, thank god for Microsoft by AndroidCat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Without their fine closed-source innovation, the interweb would never have been possible. And wasn't it nice of them to give their TCP/IP stack to aid BSD development and let everyone else use that browser idea they had?

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  3. more like... by jte · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Where do you want it today."

    1. Re:more like... by Geek+of+Tech · · Score: 4, Funny
      Just so that you know, when they were saying "Where do you want to go today?", they weren't asking us. They were just trying to get us "conditioned" for his Lordship Bill.

      If you've ever used Windows for more than a year, be careful. One view of Bill in public and you'll find yourself saying "Good Morning, Mr. Gates. Where do you want to go today?"

      I'm pretty sure it says that in the changelog somewhere....

      --
      Stop the Slashdot effect! Don't read the articles!
  4. Microsoft to Share Office Software Code by AndroidCat · · Score: 3, Funny
    Sun 19 September, 2004 23:04

    SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. said on Sunday that it would share the underlying software code for its Office program as part of its efforts to make governments more confident in the security and compatibility of the world's largest software maker's products.[snip]

    So I guess the government should limit Office use? (Not that MS is promising open source by any means.)

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  5. Oh, yeah, that. by Estanislao+Mart�nez · · Score: 1, Funny
    Once we have everything under Linux that we have under Winblows, we're not going to stop, we're going to build on that.

    Indeed, perhaps next year will truly be The Year of Linux on the Desktop(TM).

    --

    Are you adequate?

  6. Re:OS supports innovation: examples that prove it by bani · · Score: 2, Funny

    Good job, I wonder why more people are not realizing this.

    because the average /. reader is a lemming with the iq of a turnip?