FC: Oracle admits to hiring private eyes to dig up dirt on MS

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

***********

Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 21:57:26 -0700
From: Jennifer Glass <jennifer.glass () oracle com>
Organization: Oracle Corporation
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>

[personal note snipped --Declan]

Statement of the Oracle Corporation
June 27, 2000

Oracle Corporation hired Investigation Group International (IGI) to examine
the activities of  the Independent Institute and the National Taxpayers
Union.  As a result, Oracle discovered that both the Independent Institute and
the National Taxpayers Union were misrepresenting themselves as independent
advocacy groups, when in fact their work was funded by Microsoft for the
express purpose of influencing public opinion in favor of Microsoft during its
antitrust trial.  Microsoft  also funded the Association of Competitive
Technology for the same exact purpose.  Left undisclosed, these Microsoft
front groups could have improperly influenced the outcome of one of the most
important antitrust cases in U.S. history.

When Oracle hired IGI to investigate Microsoft's numerous front organizations,
we didn't specify how IGI should go about gathering information.  We did
however insist that whatever methods IGI employed, those methods must be
legal.  IGI repeatedly assured us that all their activities were in fact 100%
legal.

Jennifer

*******************************************************************************

Jennifer Glass
Vice President, Corporate Public Relations
Oracle Worldwide Marketing
jennifer.glass () oracle com


Declan McCullagh wrote:

> I'm writing a story about Oracle's hiring of IGI to acquire the trash from
> pro-Microsoft trade associations, and would like to get a response from
> you. My earlier article on the topic:
>    http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,37022,00.html

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology
To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------