marketwatch.com — Characteristically, as lawmakers like Homan have learned, Microsoft's hardly taking a passive position... 'Microsoft sees what's coming. Things like Word and Excel sort of like a drug now getting ready to go generic.'
Apr 29, 2007 View in Crawl 4
teatimegrommitApr 29, 2007
Lobbying is how representatives learn about the unintended consequences of their bills. It really isn't intended to be evil. But, in a media dominated world where individual campaign contributions are no longer sufficient to win an election, lobbyists gain a power that they should not have. Specifically, the power to threaten. The solution isn't to ban lobbyists, the solution is to change the flow of information with a combination of technology and law such that a representative can say to Microsoft, "Did you just THREATEN me? No, you didn't. You *didn't* just threaten me!" and then go vote against MS, secure in the knowledge that the truth will get out and that her reelection campaign won't be harmed by going against a big company.
workharderscumApr 29, 2007
As is Java. Java vs. .Net arguments only serve to show how similar they both are....
workharderscumApr 29, 2007
These laws are NOT ABOUT SOFTWARE. They are about the file formats used to exchange data. If Microsoft wanted to make Office compliant with these laws, how long do you think it would take with their resources? A couple of days? A week?
fantasticflanApr 29, 2007
@bobbyiA corporation is not a person, cannot be held to the same standards, laws as a person, should not have the rights of a person.
sk545Apr 30, 2007
"The real answer here is to disallow corporate lobbying.A Corporation is not an individual. Every individual in a corparation has all the rights that the Constitution grants them.Why, when a bunch of rich individuals gang up should they be entitled to a special extra set of individual rights? The corporation basically becomes a fictional person who can take all the blame for the "Boards" actions.A company, ANY company should have no right to hire people to sway the influence of our elected officials. They are elected by individuals to serve those who elected them. Corporations have no vote. They should have no representation."Lobbying is the biggest crime in the US government. No idea as to why its even allowed. Problem is that the general public doesn't even know what lobbying is. Watch the movie "Manchurian Candidate", for a example of how the US government is really run. But then again, what did you expect from a capitalist country? No saying that communism is any better, but capitalism has its own share of problems.
atomic1fireApr 30, 2007
so does that mean (by your Opinion) HTML should be made the standardif so whyIts more common in websitesNo normal user is going to use a WYSIWYG editor to make reports/letters/etcso why do you want HTML to be a standard (yeah it already is for website design)
clyde2801Apr 30, 2007
To Richard2:No, it's just that they tried passing those kinds of laws before, but the lobbyists had them killed in committee.