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>Microsoft-backed lobby group Initiative for a Competitive [Online] Marketplace

I hadn't heard of that before. It is… amusing, to say the least.

Nearly all the anti-Google groups that complain to competition authorities in any country are funded (at least in part, generally almost entirely) by Microsoft. The strategy seems to be "if we faced huge costs dealing with regulatory oversight, so should they."

Usually the case is - if an organization A is opposing or campaigning against an organization B then A is mostly likely to be funded by {C} which is an organization or a group of organizations opposed to A in a financial, philosophical or social way.

You might find this 2009 article from WIRED magazine amusing as well then: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-02/ff_killgoogle...

That story doesn't discuss ICOMP, but this 2010 Telegraph article does: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/8184065/Dark-forces-gu...

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