Former BSA VP Confirmed as Tech Undersecretary

RedOregon writes "The Senate has confirmed Robert Cresanti as the Commerce Department's new undersecretary for technology. Who's that, you ask? He was the former vice president of public policy at the Business Software Alliance. Does this give anyone else the Heebie Jeebies??"

Comments

If that position meant anything, maybe

[daeg]

You're getting the heebie jeebies from an undersecretary? The position means very little, be glad he wasn't given a real job like a spot on the Supreme Court.

Everyone except

[idonthack]

Does this give anyone else the Heebie Jeebies??

Everyone except the Senators. They're getting new cars.

Business as Usual

[Tackhead]

> Former BSA VP Confirmed as Tech Undersecretary

Sounds like par for the course to me.

About the same as a Doubleclick hack (Nuala O'Connor Kelly, Chief "Privacy" Officer of Doubleclick) advising HomeSec on privacy.

Or the Gator/Claria hack (D. Reed Freeman, former Gator/Claria Chief "Privacy" Officer) sitting on HomeSec's Data "Privacy" and "Integrity" Advisory Committee.

Maybe we should be thankful. Based on precedent, the BSA guy should be put in charge of the Copyright office, or perhaps hired by NSA to... adjust its priorities when it comes to what sort of traffic is worthy of further investigation.

Anyone taking bets on when Jeff Bezos gets picked to head USPTO?

The BSA...I remember them...

[Expert Determination]

When I tried to sell a bunch of (legal) copies of some Adobe software on Ebay the BSA told Ebay to pull my auction because I was breaking the law. I sent Ebay a pretty snotty email about how ridiculous it was that they'd listen to a third party making random accusations that were completely and utterly unfounded. Clearly they had gone scouting through Ebay looking for all sales of software by their members accusing them all of piracy. My ad had even made a special point of having photos to show the original packaging and I had spelled out the fact that I was ready to carry out a proper transfer of license through Adobe. They didn't even read that far.

Fortunately Ebay did in fact reinstate my auctions but I was pretty unhappy about the disgusting way I had been treated. I can only hope that the shoot first, ask questions later attitude will be moderated now that this guy has a government job.

Re:It's consistent

[Valdrax]

It could also be argued that the administration is picking people who know something about what they're regulating and understand the issues. Mind you, I don't say you're wrong, just that there's more than one interpretation of this.

No, "foxes guarding the henhouse" usually implies people who know the situation but profit from not enforcing the rules.

The problem with conservative government is that it's primarily run by people who wish it didn't exist in the first place. The reason why everything is so screwed up in the current administration is because it's staffed by people who have such disrespect for the institutions that they are running that they don't bother to do the job right.

Witness FEMA. Grover Norquist of the Americans for Tax Reform once stated, "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." Congratulations. Was New Orleans a good enough bathtub for the people to realize the problem with letting people with this attitude run things?