Strategists close to Microsoft suggest the simple fact of the company's involvement is generating the tsuris. "It seems to me the opponents are trying to find bogeymen in the bill where none currently exists," says Roger Salazar, who's heading a Microsoft-backed coalition supporting the measure. "If it's paranoia, that's one thing; but if they're doing it because the proponent is one of their biggest competitors, that's another thing altogether."
Lobbyists for the opposition call that nonsense. Instead, they argue Microsoft is taking an overly heavy-handed approach, a reflection on its misguided reliance on its own incumbency. "It's a sad state," says one, "almost like the Hollywood studios trying to hold on to that last nut as long as they can."
The Redmond, Wash.-based company already has scored a significant win in its own backyard. Washington state last year adopted a law banning manufacturers found to be using pirated software from selling their products in the state -- and it opened big retailers peddling those goods up to liability, as well. Louisiana approved a similar bill the year before.
And in Washington, DC -- where Microsoft spent $7.34 million lobbying last year, second only to Google in the tech sector -- the company is hoping to enlist regulators to act as its cops on the beat. Early last month, all but three members of the Senate Small Business Committee sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission asking the agency to use "all the tools at [its] disposal to fight the theft and use of stolen American manufacturing information technology." The letter framed the request as an imperative to stop the decline of American manufacturing. It didn't mention Microsoft.
