Local congressional representative bought and paid for

"Congressional caucus targets piracy" features Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., whose district "includes the Seattle surburbs near Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., headquarters."

Let's see what opensecrets.org and PoliticalMoneyLine have.

For 2002, opensecrets says Rep. Smith's top contributor is Microsoft Corp. ( Note: this reflects that the most money came from MS' PAC, employees, owners and their immediate families. For example, PoliticalMoneyLine reports that David Bradlee, a Microsoft software developer, gave $1,200 to "ADAM SMITH FOR CONGRESS".)

Why is this important? Because, according to News.com's article, Rep. Smith "helped author a note last fall to 74 fellow Democrats assailing the Linux open-source operating system's GNU General Public License as a threat to America's 'innovation and security.'"

Maybe if you spent focused more on competing than locking out, Microsoft...


Written by Andrew Ittner in misc on Tue 20 May 2003. Tags: government, politics, oss, linux