Microsoft's 'Men in Black' kill Florida open standards legislation

"It was just a bit of text advocating open data formats that was slipped into a Florida State Senate bill at the last minute with no fanfare, but within 24 hours three Microsoft-paid lobbyists, all wearing black suits, were pressuring members of the Senate Committee on Governmental Operations (COGO) to remove the words they didn't like from Senate bill 1974.

Are there enough Florida voters who care enough about open standards and open source to overcome the combined financial might of Microsoft's lobbying and sales forces, plus their many distributors, and other businesses (think anti-virus vendors!) who depend on Microsoft products to make money?

There's only one way to find out...."

Click on the link below for the full article:

http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/04/16/2019244