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Microsoft's Lobbying In Massachusetts

Posted by kdawson on from the schmandards dept.

Andy Updegrove writes "Carol Sliwa at ComputerWorld has posted two excellent stories just now on ODF in Massachusetts, based on over 300 emails secured under the Massachusetts Public Records Law (the local analogue of the Federal Freedom of Information Act). The longer and more intriguing article focuses on Microsoft's lobbying efforts in Massachusetts, and confirms, as I reported last week, that Microsoft lobbyist Brian Burke was spearheading an effort to bring pressure on the state's Information Technology Division (ITD) by promoting an amendment that would have taken away much of the ITD's power to make technology policy. The article goes on to describe the back-channel negotiations between State CIO Louis Gutierrez and Microsoft's Alan Yates, and the way that Microsoft played the lobbying card throughout those discussions in an effort to protect its wildly profitable Office software franchise against potential erosion by competing products that support ODF." Andy has a blog entry on the lobbying effort.

4 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Capitalism at it's finest! by Guppy06 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    " Microsoft lobbyist Brian Burke was spearheading an effort to bring pressure on the state's Information Technology Division (ITD) by promoting an amendment that would have taken away much of the ITD's power to make technology policy."

    So, instead of spending time and money on making a better product, Microsoft decides to spend it on removing the power of choice from potential consumers? It's beginning to seem like the only products actually available in a free market here are the legislators themselves.

    If Office is so good, why is Microsoft so afraid?

    1. Re:Capitalism at it's finest! by tokul · · Score: 5, Insightful
      If Office is so good, why is Microsoft so afraid?
      OpenOffice might be good enough and has lower price tag.
  2. Re:Be careful what you wish for.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I'll be happy to see them take their lumps when they screw up their technology badly enough that the world moves en masse to something better.


    I hope you're prepared for disappointment, because it's on the way. No matter what Microsoft does, they always win. Even the worst of their worst (WinME?) or the EU fines didn't even put a dent in their operations and profits.

    It's like the dreamers claiming that "Nobody wants Vista" or "MS miscalculated this time!", and "Who needs to 'upgrade' to Vista?"...the same shit was said about every other Windows release, yet each very quickly became the new standard.

    If Microsoft shipped shrink wrapped boxes of horse shit they'd still dominate. Yay.
  3. Re:In their defence... by genooma · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It takes a lot of energy to convince people that using open, standard formats to store files somehow gives "preferential treatment for specific vendor products" "energy", what a strange way of spelling money.