Oracle's stand depends on where it sits

Dan Gillmor thinks that Oracle is hypocritical in joining the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT), an organization it formerly tried to discredit when ACT backed Microsoft against the Justice Department's anti-trust lawsuit. Now that Oracle is on the receiving end of an anti-trust lawsuit, Oracle doesn't seem to have any problem with taking exactly the opposite position.

Oracle's turnabout on ACT highlights the technology industry's frequent indifference to principle on public policy issues, at least when principle conflicts with the bottom line. Larry Ellison and his troops wanted antitrust laws to be enforced when enforcement might hurt a foe and help Oracle. Now that enforcement might work against Oracle, whoops, this is a terrible, terrible thing. (No wonder Washington finds the tech industry so shallow.)

Gillmor also takes issue with academics that parrot the story line of PR firms to the press.

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