SO, Microsoft's most infamous lobbyists are still around and they use patents as a weapon, not just lock-in such as OOXML. There is now a new mask for this particular group of lobbyists, and a new Web site too. Watch who follows and promotes this site (and Twitter account), it's just people from ACT. This is yet another campaign Web site (one of many) belonging to this longtime Microsoft AstroTurfing group.

"The name of their site/campaign is probably designed to imitate or borrow the reputation of AllThingsD (Wall Street Journal) or All Things Open (ATO), a conference about FOSS."See our Wiki for some background on Association for Competitive Technology, formerly known as ATL. It had previous names, but evidently it saw the need to keep renaming/rebranding because its agenda and clients become public knowledge, compromising its ability to operate effectively as a lobbying group.

In recent years these lobbyists were trying to masquerade as an alliance for 'apps' developers, disguising the anti-Linux and anti-FOSS agenda as 'apps'. "Today marks the launch of http://AllThingsFRAND.com," they announced in Twitter. "Follow our site for the latest news & analysis on patents, standards, and FRAND licensing" (the inherent foes of FOSS, Android, and Linux).

Anyone who follows this site will basically be following lobbyists. They are selling something. They sell agenda, not information.

“[W]hen you see all the complains at the EU level against Google, some company is pulling the strings from behind”
      --Benjamin HenrionThe name of their site/campaign is probably designed to imitate or borrow the reputation of AllThingsD (Wall Street Journal) or All Things Open (ATO), a conference about FOSS.

André Rebentisch (FFII) noticed this and said that "ACT [had] launched a #FRAND web site" (FRAND in this context are patents -- mostly software patents -- that act as a tax that's virtually impossible to avoid).

“ACT launched a FRAND web site...”
      --André RebentischSomeone should perhaps tell the not-so-open-anymore Red Hat that Microsoft is still attacking FOSS (via front groups), with patents inside so-called 'industry standards' (thickets/cartels Microsoft is in). Well, so much for 'standstill'... they are still on the offensive, albeit discreetly (through satellites).

Benjamin Henrion (FFII) told André that "ACT is still ACT. [Is] Zuck still around?" (he was one of their leading lobbyists even back in the ATL days)

Henrion added that "when you see all the complains at the EU level against Google, some company is pulling the strings from behind" (indeed, and we have covered this many times before).

"Here too we have patent lawyers trying to pressure politicians to support misguided policies that enrich lawyers and their big clients (multinational monopolies/oligopolies) at the expense of everybody else."Henrion has noticed yet another curious thing about lobbyists. "Patent lawyers are forming working groups," he wrote, citing Patent Watchtroll, a longtime prominent booster of software patents, "in order to draft law for software patents in the US after the Alice storm" (Alicestorm is a term used to refer to the avalanche of software patents after the Alice case).

Patent lawyers are basically the equivalent of weapons companies with their pro-war lobbying groups, set aside their soft bribes to people in Congress (to ensure politicians become hawkish or that only hawks are electable). This is why US Congress supports militaristic policies which in turn pass public money to weapons companies. Here too we have patent lawyers trying to pressure politicians to support misguided policies that enrich lawyers and their big clients (multinational monopolies/oligopolies) at the expense of everybody else. ⬆