[DMCA-Activists] 'No conflict' as MS hires top IT Eurocrat

[Seth Johnson]

(Forwarded from DMCA Discussion list)

-------- Original Message --------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 12:19:26 +0200 (EET)
From: Jei <address@hidden>


> http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/28298.html

'No conflict of interest,' as MS recruits top Brussels IT
Eurocrat

By John Lettice
Posted: 26/11/2002 at 12:21 GMT


In a barely-registered coup earlier this month Microsoft
recruited senior European Commission official Detlef Eckert.
But that's not a problem - Eckert, who it is understood will
be joining The Beast on the 1st of December, "has had
nothing to do with the Microsoft competition case," the FT's
'Observer' gossip column tells us, but simply "had
responsibility to roll out broadband communications."

Oh really? Although both the Commission and Eckert assured
the FT there was no possible conflict of interest, the entry
in the Commission's internal Guide des Services for Eckert's
unit of DGIS (Directorate General, Information Society)
includes, in that case, numerous baffling entries.

Two of the staff reporting to him specifically cover
"competition cases," and if you include economic analysis
(some considerable overlap here, surely), then out of a
total of eleven (excluding support staff), four have posts
that would appear to have some considerable relevance to
competition policy. And if they're not doing approximately
what their job descriptions say, then one wonders what they
are doing.

The listing for the rest of Eckert's little empire
illustrates what an unfeasibly large pile of unimportant
stuff can reside under the banner 'broadband rollout.' We
have:

- Policy and technical aspects of information security,
cryptography and related subjects
- Encryption policy, export controls of information security
products and services, notification procedures, interception
of telecommunications, third pillar activities, Internet.
Informatics coordinator
- Electronic commerce, international aspects - Global
Business Dialogue (GBDe), alternative dispute settlement,
digital management
- e-Signature directive
- Information and network security, e-signature directive

Not forgetting "Employment and the Information Society," and
of course eEurope, which does indeed have the goal of
bringing "the benefits of the Information Society to all
Europeans."

None of that little lot is likely to be of the slightest
interest to Microsoft, of course, and nor is responsibility
for issues such as open source software and patenting of
computer-implemented inventions, which our sources assure us
he also had.

But we're told he's only taking leave of absence from the
Commission for a period of up to three years, during which
time he can always come back. So maybe he's a spy. ®

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