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.

Oh no

[Kijori]

Now the government might start using bad data to justify ridiculous copyright laws and restriction of users' rights! But wait, surely no-one would let them get away with that?

I'm shocked!

[Anonymous Coward]

I would have thought they would have went with some script kiddie or long-haired open source zealot, but instead they went with an industry man. Still scratching my head over this one.

It's consistent

[ktappe]

This administration is all about foxes guarding the henhouse. Considering that ex-oil executives are energy czars and ex-forestry industry personnel are in charge of monitoring the environment, this latest move really shouldn't come as a surprise.

-Kurt

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?

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?

Heebie-Jeebies? Hardly

[Anonymous Coward]

If this administration was to make an appointment that didn't favor business interests over the needs of the populace, THEN I'd be worried. I'd be expecting a time-space continuum breach or the earth spinning off its axis or something.

Copyright Lobbyists now part of the US Govt?

[digitaldc]

From a ZDNet Aug.1, 2005 Declan McCullagh article titled , Copyright lobbyists strike again
The Central American nations participating in CAFTA must also:
- Permit software patents
- Extend copyright protection to "70 years after the author's death"
- Ban the "manufacture" or "export" of any hardware or software that could decode encrypted satellite TV signals
- Offer "online public access to a reliable and accurate" WhoIs database of domain name registration details

It's true that these may be ideas beloved by the Bush administration and business lobbyists, but they have far more to do with special-interest lobbying than traditional notions of free trade.

In reality, they're simply the latest in a string of victories that copyright lobbyists have managed to accumulate in the last decade--under both Democratic and Republican presidents--through adept work at influencing the arcane process of treaty drafting.

Negotiating below the radar "We push for that in trade agreements and treaties and bilateral" agreements, Robert Cresanti, vice president for public policy at the Business Software Alliance, told me last week. Members of his group include Adobe Systems, Cisco Systems, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel and Microsoft.

Re:Sheesh, what a day

[digitaldc]

I need half a bottle of Valium just to read /. anymore.

Sorry, your Scientologist pharmacist won't be providing that to you any more because he has found it is against his religion. You'll just have to fly to Canada to read /.

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.