How Google's Anti-Microsoft Lobbying Effort Came Back To Bite Them

from the that-was-an-easy-one dept

Two years ago, as Microsoft was trying to buy Yahoo, we were really surprised to find Google making a proactive lobbying and marketing effort to scuttle the deal. As we noted at the time, it seemed pretty likely to come back to haunt Google. Indeed, Chris Thompson is now taking a look back and believes that Google's decision to stir the pot over the Microsoft/Yahoo deal has probably been Google's biggest blunder to date. Not only did it eventually lead to Microsoft working out a much, much better deal for itself, it directly resulted in Google getting significantly more antitrust scrutiny, both in the US and abroad. Now, some of that scrutiny likely would have come anyway eventually, but Google definitely helped call much more attention to the situation and its own market position. The whole thing made no sense. Google should have known to keep its mouth shut and watched as Microsoft and Yahoo screwed up the deal on their own.

Filed Under: antitrust, lobbying
Companies: google, microsoft, yahoo

Appeals Court Notes The Feds Can't Hide Behind 'Lobbyist Privacy' In Not Releasing Documents On Immunity Lobbying

from the open-up dept

For a while now, the EFF has been trying to get the White House to reveal information on who lobbied to get retroactive telco immunity for warrantless wiretapping. The "we're all about transparency and openness" Obama administration has been stalling as much as possible, and while it released some info after a long fight, it still insisted that it was keeping some information private, claiming a heretofore unknown standard of "lobbyist privacy." Yeah, that's a good one. Turns out the courts don't know what it means either, and an Appeals Court has said that it's a bogus excuse, and the government needs to hand over the info:

"There is a clear public interest in public knowledge of the methods through which well-connected corporate lobbyists wield their influence."

I'm still not sure what anyone expects to get out of these documents. We know who lobbied: the telcos did, like crazy. And the reason they did so is because they know they broke the law in assisting the administration in getting info outside the official process. In fact, the recent revelations suggest the telcos didn't just accede to administration demands, but they eagerly assisted in explaining how to get around the rules. So of course they lobbied to get immunity.

Filed Under: lobbying, privacy, telco immunity, warrantless wiretaps

Intuit Lobbying The Government To Make It More Difficult To File Your Tax Returns

from the isn't-that-special dept

A fascinating article points out that the government could make the process of filing your tax returns significantly easier by simply sending you pre-filled out forms of what they know (basically what's been sent in from your employer(s)) so that you could just take the pre-filled form, check it over, make any additions or changes as necessary and submit it. Apparently, many places that have done this have had great success with it. But it's not happening in the US in large part due to heavy lobbying from Intuit, who fears (perhaps correctly) that this would put a big dent into its tax preparation software business. Of course, that's not how Intuit puts it. The company first claims that this functionality is "already available" (it's not) and that it is a "conflict of interest for government to be both tax collector and tax preparer." However, that is also inaccurate. No one is asking the government to be the tax preparer, but just to share the information it already has so that individuals aren't forced to rebuild the info themselves. As one person quoted in the article notes, it's "as if Visa sent customers a blank piece of paper, requiring that they assemble their receipts, list their purchases -- and pay a fine if they forget one." So, everyone, thank Intuit for making tax season that much more frustrating.

Filed Under: data, filing, government, lobbying, tax returns, taxpayers
Companies: intuit

New Lobbying Organization Tries To Skirt The Rules So It's Not Called A Lobbying Organization

from the funny-how-that-works... dept

The term "lobbyist" has certainly become a dirty word in many circles -- for a very valid reason in many cases. I've noticed that many more people have been trying to make sure they're not referred to as lobbyists, even if the activity they do is very much lobbying (accepting money from a specific set of companies for the express purpose of pushing a policy agenda that supports what those companies want). Now Copycense alerts us to a new operation that has sprung up that apparently is trying to contort itself around the rules so as not to be called lobbyists, even though they're engaged in typical lobbyist behavior. It makes you wonder... who lobbied for the rules on how you define what a lobbyist is?

Filed Under: lobbying, transparency

Astroturf Health Insurance Lobbying Group Paying Social Gamers To Oppose Health Reform

from the wow dept

We've seen plenty of stories of "astroturf" campaigns by lobbyists looking to influence public policy by pretending that there's grassroots support for some corporate position. And, we've seen stories of virtual goods scams taking place on various social networks, which are used to get unsophisticated social gamers to sign up for subscriptions to things that they don't want. But what happens when you combine the two?

Nicholas Carlson has an astounding story about a health insurance astroturf group that is using those social gaming "offer" services to get gamers to contact their elected officials to oppose health care reform in exchange for virtual currency in games. Yes, health insurance companies are basically trying to bribe a bunch of Farmville and Mafia Wars players on Facebook to send messages to their representatives, that say: "I am concerned a new government plan could cause me to lose the employer coverage I have today. More government bureaucracy will only create more problems, not solve the ones we have." In exchange, you get some virtual currency to spend.

The group behind this virtual bribery astroturfing effort is backed by a who's who of insurance trade associations... and when Carlson tried to contact them for comment, the email bounced. Nice to see that some of the scammiest lobbying groups out there have found some of the scammiest marketing techniques out there as well.

Filed Under: astrotuf, health care, health insurance, health reform, lobbying, social gaming

Kicking People Off The Internet Not Enough In South Korea, Copyright Lobbyists Demand More

from the it-never-ends dept

If you thought that the entertainment industry would stop at having the ability to force ISPs to kick people they accuse (not convict) of file sharing offline, you might want to pay attention to what's happening in South Korea. South Korea, of course, is home to very high broadband penetration, with exceptionally high speeds. And, not surprisingly, there's a lot of unauthorized file sharing going on there. Of course, if you looked at the Korean cultural world, you'd immediately learn that smart entrepreneurs and entertainers quickly learned to adapt and take advantage of this new world. Entrepreneurs like JY Park recognized the changing marketplace, and adapted -- and the massive success he's had with artists like Rain and Wonder Girls, suggests that perhaps "piracy" wasn't a big deal. All you need is some smart business people who can adapt.

But, of course, we've all seen what sorts of companies are afraid to adapt. The big record labels and the big movie studios couldn't be bothered with the tricky proposition of actually understanding the new marketplace and adjusting their business model. So, they went to the US government and said "something must be done." That "something" turned out to be a new "free trade" (ha ha!) agreement with South Korea, that had little to do with free trade, but plenty to do with pushing ridiculously draconian copyright laws on South Korea (i.e., protectionism for the entertainment industry, not free trade). Of course, these new laws went way beyond what any other country had, and included getting the government to shut down file sharing sites while restricting how user-generated content sites could work as well. Not surprisingly, once the law passed, various sites began restricting how they could be used, even limiting the uploading of any songs, even ones that users themselves had created. And, of course, with all that, a "three strikes" plan to kick people off the internet was also included.

You would think that the industry would be happy and leave well enough alone, right?

Of course not. Reader Dan alerts us to the news that some entertainment industry lobbyists are now demanding that all file sharing services must use content filters. Otherwise, they plan to sue. Just another reminder that for some of these folks, enough will never be enough. They will keep pushing for more and more, just as consumers keep pushing back on having their own rights stripped away.

And, don't think this is limited to South Korea. Many of the "leaked" points about the needlessly secretive ACTA deal are supposedly "based on" the trade agreement that was done with South Korea. So take a look at what's happening there and see if that's how you think copyright law should work in the US.

Filed Under: copyright, filters, liability, lobbying, south korea

Administration Finally Releasing Some Info On Telco Immunity Lobbying

from the quite-a-fight dept

After many attempts to block or delay the release of info on who lobbied the federal government last year for telco immunity in lawsuits involving the fed's warrantless wiretapping program, the government has finally agreed to hand over some of the information requested. Of course, since the administration had already won a longer delay, and only some of the info is being revealed, I'm guessing that there isn't much surprising in what's being released -- though it makes you wonder why the administration went to such lengths to hide it.

Filed Under: lobbying, obama, state secrets, warrantless wiretapping
Companies: eff

Dear RIAA: It's Not 'Working Together As A Team' When It's Under Threat Of Regulation

from the do-these-guys-ever-make-sense dept

I've been trying not to respond to every RIAA blog post these days, but it's hard to let certain things go when they so rarely make any sense. For example, RIAA President Cary Sherman recently talked up the new regulations that force colleges and universities to "take proactive steps" to stop file sharing. He goes on to make it sound like universities decided to do this in the spirit of "teamwork" with the RIAA, rather than because they risked serious financial consequences under the law for not complying. He also leaves out the fact that tons of colleges and universities are pissed off and complaining about how much time, effort and money they're wasting on this just because Sherman and his friends still don't seem able to embrace modern music business models. Colleges and universities have enough to worry about without the government forcing them to act as the RIAA's police force. If it were truly about teamwork, Cary, you wouldn't have had to spend so much time getting Congress to pass a law to force them to do this.

Filed Under: cary sherman, filtering, lobbying, riaa, universities
Companies: riaa

Retired Telco PR Exec Who Sent XYZ Corp. Letter To FCC Insists He Wrote It

from the uh-huh... dept

We've already written about how a former PR exec from what became AT&T has been outed as the guy who sent a letter to the FCC where he forgot to take out the boilerplate XYZ Organization that was almost certainly left there by the AT&T lobbyists who wrote the letter for him. However, one of our commenters noted that MediaPost spoke to the guy, Bob Sells, who insists that he wrote the letter with the XYZ part included:

Sells, a 77-year-old retired public relations executive in Little Rock, tells MediaPost that he often writes letters with placeholders and fills in the correct text later, but overlooked the reference to XYZ in this case.

Really? I'm really trying to give this guy the benefit of the doubt, but I can't come up with a single explanation for why he would write "XYZ Organization" when writing a letter himself from a group of people he supposedly represents. If you're the one writing the letter, on behalf of your supposed organization, why would you include "XYZ Organization"?

Filed Under: astroturfing, bob sells, cut and paste, lobbying, net neutrality
Companies: at&t

Guy Who Signed 'XYZ Corp.' Astroturf Letter... Worked As Telco PR Person For Nearly 3 Decades?

from the funny-how-that-works... dept

So, remember last week when we wrote about how anti-net neutrality lobbyists from AT&T had crafted astroturf letters for various "special interest groups" to sign -- but someone forgot to remove the boilerplate "XYZ Organization" in the first paragraph? We also noted that there was little evidence that the group -- the Arkansas Retired Seniors -- actually existed. However, Matt Cutts did a bit of digging and found that the name of the guy who signed the letter -- Bob Sells -- appears to have worked in PR for Southwestern Bell for 28 years (there appears to be only one Bob Sells or Robert Sells in Little Rock). Southwestern Bell, of course, became better known as SBC. SBC, of course, became AT&T after it bought the old AT&T and took on its name. So, if you're an AT&T lobbyist and you want to convince the FCC that "seniors" are against net neutrality -- and you don't want it to appear to come from AT&T employees -- who better to go to than an ex-employee? Still, next time you get a former employee to shill for you, remember to replace the bogus XYZ Organization you left for him in the text of the letter you sent him.

Filed Under: astroturfing, bob sells, cut and paste, lobbying, net neutrality
Companies: at&t, sbc, southwestern bell