Los Angeles Times: Lobbyists Tied to Microsoft Wrote Citizens’ Letters. Letters purportedly written by at least two dead people landed on the desk of Utah Atty. Gen. Mark Shurtleff earlier this year, imploring him to go easy on Microsoft Corp. for its conduct as a monopoly.
Once again, the Microsoft munchkins are at work. And once again, as you’ll see if you read this story, Microsoft sees nothing wrong with its sleaze.
A couple of months ago, I was bombarded with letters after writing a critical column about Microsoft. I started noticing similar language in the letters, and figured they’d been ginned up by one of the company’s lobbying outfits.
Sure enough, it turned out that a Microsoft-funded group calling itself Americans for Technology Leadership was behind the “grassroots outpouring” — one of the same worthy organizations cited by the Los Angeles Times in this story. No one from the group returned my phone calls or email when I called to ask about the campaign.
Here’s what Microsoft is accomplishing with this crap. It’s further infuriating the state government officials who are responsible for consumer protection. With every day that passes, they get more certain that Microsoft is a company that has no concept of ethical behavior, that Microsoft will do anything to maintain its monopoly and ability to abuse the free market.
Now that’s an effective lobbying campaign.