By Stefan Krempl and Craig Morris

9 August, 2005

Proponents of free software are protesting the planned appointment of Boyden Gray as the US's ambassador to the EU because he was a lobbyist for Microsoft in the antitrust case against the software vendor. In particular, they fear that Gray will once again stand up on behalf of Microsoft in the antitrust proceedings again to the vendor's business practices in Brussels. "We were disappointed that the US antitrust authorities were unable to perform their task," explained the president of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), Georg Greve. Greve sees the appointment of Microsoft's lawyer as the US's representative to the European Union as a "clear signal of who really has political power."

US President George Bush nominated the conservative lobby expert Gray for the position as a diplomat in Brussels last July. The U.S. Senate still has to confirm his nomination. Gray is a partner in the law firm Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr in Washington. The co-chairman of the lobby group Citizens for a Sound Economy, whose job should be to support the free market and lower taxes, both received money from and donated money to Microsoft during the year-long antitrust proceedings against the vendor in the US. In letters to US prosecutors, Gray praised the monopolist for being successful due to its "ideas and valuable products in combination with clever marketing and an aggressive sales strategy." He also warned the US Justice Department from breaking up the Microsoft Group because such a step would "destroy growth, innovation, and competition in the technology industry."

"The Microsoft cases in the United States and in Europe were both historic," Greve now believes. The former because it failed, the latter because the political institutions in the EU proved to be less susceptible to the kind of lobbying that Gray performs. "We can only encourage the EU Commission to stay true to its course and not put the interests of US companies over those of European consumers and industry," the FSFE head added. For him, there is no doubt that the actions taken by US antitrust officials are the result of the work of lobbyists like Gray.