Bonum Certa Men Certa

Democrats and Microsoft Decide on National Agenda Together

Press conference



Summary: Microsoft's involvement in US policy-making is worth attention

THE CURRENT US ADMINISTRATION appears to be carrying on with the policy of letting industry run the country, be it the RIAA/MPAA [1-12] or in this latest case -- Microsoft. Obama-Microsoft proximity is an issue we've already covered in [1, 2, 3], but to be fair, Google too is in there [1, 2] (although it is not an abusive monopolist).



Watch out for other jaw-dropping appointments or advisories. When policy is driven primarily or exclusively by big corporations, it's real trouble. _______ [1] Joe Biden promises a blank check to the entertainment cartel

VP Joe Biden stood up in front of a bunch of Hollywood execs and promised to appoint a copyright czar, and furthermore, that this would be the "right" person to protect their interests. I would have voted Dem in the last election, if I got a vote, but make no mistakes: the Dems are the party of stupid copyright laws.


[2] Administration Lobbyist Ban Not Doing What It's Supposed To Do

We've already seen how the Justice Department is, for example, being filled with lawyers who regularly worked with the RIAA, MPAA and BSA -- three of the biggest copyright lobbying organizations, and those individuals have wasted no time in expressing their desire to continue pushing those industry's viewpoints in their new positions.


[3] Copyright debate heats up over Obama appointments

The president has, in fact, filled out some high-level Justice Department positions with lawyers favored by the copyright industry, including attorneys who have represented the Recording Industry Association of America and the Business Software Alliance. The signatories of the April 2 letter said the Justice Department's intervention last month in favor of a record label in a file-sharing case heightens their concern.


[4] Biden promises 'right person' as new U.S. copyright czar

"It's pure theft, stolen from the artists and quite frankly from the American people as consequence of loss of jobs and as a consequence of loss of income," Biden said, according to a White House pool report.


[5] MPAA reaches out to lawmakers

The occasion: the second biennial summit sponsored by the industry's chief lobbying arm, the Motion Picture Assn. of America.


[6] I got you, babe

Obama is whistling the music industry's tune


[7] Obama Taps 5th RIAA Lawyer to Justice Dept.

President Barack Obama is tapping another RIAA attorney into the Justice Department.

Monday's naming of Ian Gershengorn, to become the department's deputy assistant attorney of the Civil Division, comes more than a week after nearly two-dozen public interest groups, trade pacts and library coalitions urged the new president to quit filling his administration with lawyers plucked from the Recording Industry Association of America.

The move makes it five RIAA lawyers Obama has appointed to the Justice Department.


[8] Obama administration sides with RIAA in P2P suit

The Obama administration has sided with the recording industry in a copyright lawsuit against an alleged peer-to-peer pirate, a move that echoes arguments previously made by the Bush administration.


[9] Obama Sides With RIAA, Supports $150,000 Fine per Music Track

[10] U.S. Sides with RIAA in Filesharing Case

[11] Obama Administration Claims Copyright Treaty Involves State Secrets?!?

When the Obama administration took over, there was a public stance that this administration was going to be more transparent -- especially with regards to things like Freedom of Information Act requests. The nonprofit group Knowledge Ecology International took that to heart and filed an FOIA request to get more info on ACTA. The US Trade Representative's Office responded denying the request, saying that the information was "classified in the interest of national security pursuant to Executive Order 12958." This is a treaty about changing copyright law, not sending missiles somewhere. To claim that it's a national security matter is just downright scary. As KEI points out, the text of the documents requested have been available to tons of people, including more than 30 governments around the world and lobbyists from the entertainment industry, pharma industry and publishing industry.


[12] Obama names Doerr, Phillips to economic board

Two Silicon Valley leaders have been appointed by President Obama to a 16-person committee that's charged with offering economic advice during what has become an unusually sharp and deep recession.

John Doerr, the billionaire venture capitalist at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, is one. Doerr was involved in funding companies including Google, Amazon.com, Sun Microsystems, and Cypress Semiconductor; he currently serves on the board of companies including Amazon and Google and has recently turned his attention to green tech.

Charles Phillips, the president of Oracle, is another. Phillips became president in May 2003 and previously was with Morgan Stanley's Institutional Securities Division. He's a Linux aficionado and said in 2005: "On demand is the future of software for many years to come and we are building it on Linux."

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Red Hat's Bluewashing to be Further Completed This Year
Do not wait for some announcement from redhat.com - it's already covered by IBM
Dr. Andy Farnell on a Death to Efficiency and Cash
Cash is not the same as "digital cash", which isn't even remotely the same
A Gift That Keeps on Giving: Microsofters Reveal a Campaign of SLAPP, Seeking to Censor Critical Information About Lawsuits Against Microsoft
All they can get here or mockery and ridicule
LLM Slopfarms: LinuxSecurity.com and FUDZilla Doing 'Linux' (Fake Articles)
It's 2025. Everything on the Web is getting worse, except SPARTAN.
 
Links 19/02/2025: The Forgotten USB Competitor and Pope's Bilateral Pneumonia
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/02/2025: AuraRepo and Offpunk
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Wayne Williams is Making Up for His Workers' Slop Party, LinuxSecurity.com Still Publishes Fake Articles
We must identify and call out the culprits
“Open Source” Really Does Miss the Point, We Can Do Better Than That
We need to reject groups of people who promote Microsoft GitHub (proprietary) and call that "Open Source"
Links 19/02/2025: Organisations Quitting Social Control Media, Windows TCO Illustrated Some More
Links for the day
The Free Software Foundation is More Financially Independent From Large Corporations Right Now
Money that comes with strings attached to it is always problematic
The Free Software Foundation's Position on IBM Taking Red Hat Enterprise Linux 'Private' is Articulated Almost 2 Years Late
The Free Software Foundation finally spoke out about this issue
Techrights Publication Topics
One thing we'd like to do more of is Software Freedom advocacy
Springtime Layoffs at IBM (2025) and Statement From IBM European Works Council
It's about cost-cutting, even if such cuts doom the company
Microsoft Paying People Who Harass and SLAPP Techrights, Demanding Censorship
At this point the money trail leads directly to Microsoft
It's Not Even Hidden Anymore: Microsoft is Passing Bribes for Media to Publish Puff Pieces About Itself
GeekWire is paid by Microsoft to publish many puff pieces (even outright lies) about Microsoft
Links 19/02/2025: Political Roundup and Halifax Wants to Dump Twitter ("X")
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/02/2025: Beginning Meditation, Poison as Praxis, and Blogging
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 18, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Two Years After Issuing Ridiculous Threats and Choosing a Law Firm in Debt (Probably Desperate for Clients) Matthew J. Garrett Gets Help ('Bailout') From Microsofters
The karma won't be good
How Americans View 'Free Speech' in Practice
"No good deed goes unpunished"
Threats Against Techrights Always Come From Outside Britain
Over the coming days we shall write about an example of our own and we'll show how Americans have the audacity to bully people using a foreign (to them) court
Links 18/02/2025: More DeepSeek Bans and Supreme Court Patent Challenges
Links for the day
Links 18/02/2025: FAA Layoffs and EU Betrayed
Links for the day
On Technical Contracts of Employment and Why People Must Read Before Signing
The wave of layoffs under MElon will worsen prospects of finding alternate/better employment
Gemini Links 18/02/2025: Reading Books and Oneiric Monk
Links for the day
Swiss corruption, Greens, Liip & Debian human rights violations
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Swiss police TIGRIS unit, World Cat Day, Swiss-corruption.com & Debian
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/02/2025: “Hey Hi Video Surveillance” and YouTube at 20
Links for the day
LLM Slop is Now Filling the Web With Pure Fiction/Fabrication/Misinformation About Linux
The timing of this lie/fiction is curious because Torvalds is being brigaded for defending C
FUDZilla Has Turned Into LLM Slop and Machine-Generated FUD (New York Times Has Also Just Admitted Moving in That Direction)
Failing news sites, instead of calling it quits with some remaining dignity, are handing control over to LLM slop (pretending to still be active)
By Buying Twitter, MElon and Cheeto Now Control EU Politicians, Even at the Highest Levels
"the top level politicians make the egregious mistake of trying to treat Xitter as if it were a communications medium"
The Washington Post (Jeff Bezos) Dies in Darkness
spread it on
How to 'Sell' Software Freedom to People
In my experience, it helps when one speaks about control, not freedom, including confidentiality
Gemini Links 18/02/2025: Downloading Gemini Files with Emacs and Elpher, Gopher on Devuan
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Confirms His Next Talk, "Free/Libre Software and Freedom in the Digital Society" (Next Monday in Free University of Bozen-Bolzano)
He could already advertise this more than a week ago
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, February 17, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, February 17, 2025
IBM's Chronic Neglect Won't Save Anything and It Might Even Get IBM Sued
The problem is likely a lack of manpower, not deliberate shoddiness
Gemini Links 17/02/2025: Ideal OS, AuraRepo Alpha, and Simple Code
Links for the day
The "Cool Kids" Are Already Using GNU/Linux, Microsoft is Just Cheating
The future and the present are Linux
Links 17/02/2025: War on Dissent and Bloggers, Nationalism a Growing Theme
Links for the day
IBM Going International (and India)
It's Monday and a national holiday
GeekWire: Microsoft Bribes Us While We Cover Microsoft Affairs (Spin Doctoring), Hence We Are "Independent"
What good is a "journalist" sponsored by the very same company he or she writes about?
The Attacks on LinuxQuestions.org
Going to Clownflare only worsens the problem
The GNU Manifesto Turns 40 Next Month
The guardian of Free software (definition, licences, philosophy, hosting and so on) has managed to endure and persevere for 40 years. Very few others can say the same.
Microsoft Lunduke Belongs in 4Chan
Assuming Microsoft Lunduke is aware of the full context, he is now trolling not one but two decent organisations
In Europe and in India Richard Stallman Need Not Duck Anymore, People Trying to Cancel His Talk Have No Sway
the last time a talk by Dr. Stallman got canceled was about a year ago
Back From a Short Break
We can now resume and try to stick to the usual pace
Links 17/02/2025: LLMs Failing and Patreon Support Becoming a Burden to Bloggers
Links for the day
Links 17/02/2025: Blogroll Conundrum; Research, Scientists Under Siege
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, February 16, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, February 16, 2025