IT IS NEITHER news nor only a theory that Microsoft is encouraging companies and other entities to sue or harass Google. We provided concrete examples in the past and we are seeing it all the time. Google, unlike Microsoft, offers a solution that many people want to use and are rarely forced to use, so its brand has earned high reputation and the company's estimated value is always the same as Microsoft's (which declines rapidly [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]).
Who's Messing With the Google Book Settlement? Hint: They're in Redmond, Washington
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The only obstacle remaining for the settlement to take effect is final court approval. Given a case of this scope, it's not too surprising that a number of interested parties might lodge objections or ask for changes. Nor is it terribly surprising that at least one party nudging its way into the settlement is an internet-issues-oriented group from New York Law School.
But what does raise an eyebrow is the source of New York Law's funding on this matter: Microsoft.
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And, oh, by the way, he also discloses that the efforts of "the second oldest independent law school in the United States" is funded in part by Google's main competitor, Microsoft.
The chief investigator of the New York Law School project is James Grimmelmann. In an earlier career phase, associate law professor Grimmelmann worked as a programmer for Microsoft.
Industry Moves: Another Yahoo Exec Jumps To Microsoft; At Least 10 Poached So Far
Another week, another search executive leaves Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) and joins Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT). Dayne Sampson, Yahoo’s vice president of operations for search and advertising, will join Microsoft’s Global Foundation Services Group, which deals with the backend of Microsoft’s online properties, including search, according to AllThingD.