Association for Competitive Technology

The Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) is a group that was founded in 1998 in response to the anti-trust action against Microsoft then taking place in the United States.

The initial version of the groups website, which was first indexed in October 1999, stated that "as a grassroots information technology trade association, ACT is working to preserve the freedom to achieve, compete and innovate." (The group's orignial office address was 1225 Eye St. NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC, 20005.

On its website the group stated that the groups origins lay with a number of unnamed "technology executives" who "one day in 1998 ... woke up to find that Washington, D.C. was debating issues directly affecting their businesses -- Y2K, antitrust, encryption, and broadband. And the debate was considering how government intervention could "reform" the IT industry ... These executives, awake to the threat but busy running their businesses, formed the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT)." It claimed to lobby on behalf of "the interests of small and entrepreneurial tech companies throughout the country", against regulation, and in favour of the controversial issue of strong Intellectual Property rights in software. "...While ACT members include some household names like eBay, Orbitz and Microsoft, our members are primarily small and mid-size companies," it stated on its website.

ACT has been accused of being an industry front for Microsoft, promoting a Microsoft-friendly agenda in relation to copyright, patent, and anti-trust legislation.

Funding
In the last version of its website, dated July 2007, the group more explicitly identified that it had a small number of "sponsor member" which it identified as being:
 * eBay
 * Microsoft
 * Oracle
 * Orbitz and
 * VeriSign

Personnel

 * Jonathan Zuck, Founder President 1999-present
 * Steve DelBianco, Vice President for Public Policy 1999-present
 * Morgan W. Reed, Vice President for Public Affairs 1999-present
 * Mark Blafkin, Vice President for Public Affairs -present
 * Braden Cox, Research and Policy Counsel - 2007-present
 * Melissa Moskal, Director of Membership -2007-present
 * Allison May Rosen

Contact Details
Association for Competitive Technology 1401 K ST, NW Suite 502 Washington, DC 20005 Phone: (202) 331-2130 Website : http://www.actonline.org/ Archived version of ACT's website: http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.actonline.org