Utah has not been spared the wrath of people writing letters pressuring attorneys general to ease their efforts in antitrust lawsuits against Microsoft.
Ric Cantrell, community relations director at Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's office, said Thursday that the office has received about 400 such letters since mid-May, including 350 that have identical wording on identical stationery, except for the signature. The remaining 50 have similar sections or sentiments.
The Los Angeles Times has reported that the letter-writing campaign has targeted some of the 18 attorneys general whose states have joined the U.S. Justice Department in a sweeping antitrust lawsuit. No two letters are identical, but some contain similar wording and appeared to be written spontaneously by ordinary people.
The newspaper said the campaign was orchestrated by a group partly funded by Microsoft called Americans for Technology Leadership, although there is no reference to the organization in the letters to Shurtleff.
Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch has called the campaign "sleazy."
"We have received several hundred letters from citizens groups and citizens obviously engineered by Microsoft, but we do not think Microsoft is sleazy and we don't think this is sleazy practice," Cantrell said. "It's just people wanting to do what they can to influence their government."
It is not unusual to have identical letters in a grass-roots campaign on an issue, but the size of this letter-writing campaign was unusual, he said.
On two of the letters sent to Shurtleff, the names of dead people had been crossed out and replaced by signatures of other family members. The authors noted that they agreed with their deceased relative's opinion on the matter.
But the campaign has not been effective. "This has not influenced Mark's opinion one inch," Cantrell said. Still, the attorney general's office is sending a response to the writers, explaining Shurtleff's position on the issue.
"Since a court has determined that Microsoft acted illegally, it is not appropriate for the state of Utah to unilaterally drop the lawsuit," the letter says. It also notes that the writers should "continue to give me the benefit of your opinion from time to time."
"It has not changed his mind. We won't be pulling out of the lawsuit," Cantrell said, noting that Shurtleff still hopes to negotiate a settlement.
Microsoft officials said they are responding to the lobbying efforts of competitors who have waged political campaigns against the company.
It has not been revealed how much money Americans for Technology Leadership receives from Microsoft. The group's executive director, Jim Prendergast, said people are called and asked to sign letters in support of the software giant.
"We'd write the letter and then send it to them," he said. "That's fairly common practice."
Hatch said his office has received about 300 pro-Microsoft letters. "This is not a company that appears to be bothered by ethical boundaries," he said.
A federal judge last year found Microsoft guilty of antitrust violations. Earlier this month, an appeals court cleared the way for a new judge to decide the penalty.
Contributing: The Associated Press
E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com