FC: More on cash-for-trash, Microsoft, and Investigative Group International

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

I will be talking about this on KSFO (http://www.ksfo.com/) at 6 pm PT tonight.

I have placed more photos online, including a rare look into the offices of 
the shadowy "Upstream Technologies," apparently a front company for IGI:
  http://www.mccullagh.org/theme/act-investigation.html

-Declan

**********

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/06/biztech/articles/17soft.html

Microsoft Accuses Its Rivals of Garbage-Can Tactics
Did Someone Try to Buy Lobbyist's Trash?
By JOEL BRINKLEY

WASHINGTON, June 16 --
Microsoft accused its rivals
today of masterminding an attempt to buy
trash generated by a Microsoft-backed
lobbying organization, apparently hoping
the trash would yield valuable information
on the company.

The accusation came as the Justice
Department filed another brief in the
antitrust case against the company. It
sought to counter a Microsoft brief filed
Thursday opposing the government's
effort to send the company's appeal in the case directly to the Supreme
Court.

The trash-buying effort was first reported by Wired.com on Thursday
evening and The Wall Street Journal today.

[...]

**********

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,37039,00.html

Who's Digging Up MS Dirt?
by Declan McCullagh and Nicholas Morehead

10:15 a.m. Jun. 16, 2000 PDT
WASHINGTON -- A private detective firm with close ties
to the White House appears to be trying to dig up dirt
on Microsoft.

A woman apparently working with the Investigative
Group International tried to give janitors cash in
exchange for garbage recovered from the Association
for Competitive Technology, a free-market group that
receives funds from Microsoft and opposes the Justice
Department's antitrust suit against the company.

[...]

***********

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-2089309.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..ni

Cleaners at Microsoft trade group get cash-for-trash offer
By Bloomberg News
June 16, 2000, 4:35 a.m. PT

WASHINGTON--Office cleaners at the
Association for Competitive Technology, a
trade group funded by Microsoft, were
offered $1,200 for the association's
garbage on Tuesday, June 6, the day
before a U.S. district judge ordered the
breakup of the world's largest software
company, according to reports.

***********

Computer Reseller News
June 19, 2000

   We've had Watergate, Whitewatergate and Monicagate. Now, it's Trashgate.

   The Association for Competitive Technology (ACT), a Washington, D.C.-based
pro-Microsoft lobbyist group, said someone tried to bribe its night cleaning
crew to get a hold of the group's trash. ACT President Jonathan Zuck said that
earlier this month, an individual offered the cleaning crew $60 for ACT's
garbage. A week later, someone else offered the cleaners $500 for the trash.
Wonder what the offer will be next week?

[...]

*********

Seattle Times
June 17, 2000

WHILE MICROSOFT and its antagonists wage paper battles, arguing over who has
authority to sue and the right to hear appeals, someone else apparently just
wants the paper. A bizarre incident in Washington grabs the spotlight away from
a busy day in the courts.

The running drama of the Microsoft antitrust case took more twists and turns in
Washington yesterday, including a bizarre tale involving an apparent attempt to
buy the trash of a trade group supporting the company's fight against the
government.

Among the developments involving the company yesterday:
The cleaning staff at the Association for Competitive Technology was approached
twice this month by a woman wanting to buy the group's trash, the 
organization's
top executive said. In addition, there may have been an attempted break-in at
Microsoft's Washington, D.C., office a few days later.

[...]

**********

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
June 16, 2000

Police in Washington are investigating two cases of possible corporate
espionage against Microsoft, U.S. news reports said Friday.

First a woman claiming to be a private investigator offered to buy paper
trash at the offices of a close Microsoft ally in the antitrust case.

Days later, Microsoft's Washington, D.C. office was broken into.

Both attempts at getting information were apparently unsuccessfull, since no
documents were found missing from the office, a Microsoft spokesman said.

[...]

**********

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