By Ina Fried, 8 August 2005 17:30
NEWS The European branch of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has criticised President Bush's decision to nominate a long-time ally of Microsoft as the US representative to the European Union.
C Boyden Gray, a lawyer who lobbied on behalf of Microsoft during the US antitrust battle with the Justice Department, was named by Bush late last month as his choice to be the US' next EU ambassador.
Georg Greve, the president of FSF Europe, claimed on Monday this appointment shows the level of political control that Microsoft holds in the US. "[It] is quite an explicit statement of who truly holds the political power," said Greve in an email.
Gray's selection, which must be confirmed by the Senate, comes at a critical time in the EU's antitrust case against Microsoft - the European Commission (EC) is expected to make a decision on whether Microsoft has complied with last year's antitrust ruling later this year.
Greve said until now the EU has shown itself to be less influenced by lobbyists than the US but was concerned this may change. "We can only encourage the European Commission to stay true to its course and not let US company interests rule over those of European consumers and economy," said Greve.
The EC did not respond to requests for comment at the time of writing.
Gray is co-chairman of the group Citizens for a Sound Economy, which advocates free-market positions with a focus on taxes and government regulation. CSE and other similarly-minded groups received cash from Microsoft during its long-running antitrust war with the US Justice Department and state attorneys general.
CNET News.com's Declan McCullagh contributed to this report
Ingrid Marson writes for ZDNet UK
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1. anon
Get real. OSS folks describing this as showing how MS controls the US government? These folks are reading too much of the European anti-US press. Maybe they should work on getting their unemployment down to normal levels and reduce crime. Paris is worse than NYC and all they worry about is an appointment to a minor position.