Eliot Spitzer, the disgraced New York governor making headlines this week for being linked to a prostitution ring, is perhaps best known for his aggressive takedown of unethical Wall Street firms during his days as attorney general. But
the former prosecutor also played a big role in cleaning up the high-tech and network industries.
Network World even named Spitzer one of its 50 Most Powerful People in Networking in 2002. We wrote:
"This sheriff of Wall Street has demonstrated serious zeal in uncovering conflicts of interest among financial services firms
that potentially hurt investors. He's been digging into Citigroup's Salomon Smith Barney investment banking unit and in particular
the work of Salomon telecom analyst Jack Grubman, who is suspected of recommending stocks to help win banking business…..
The Democratic attorney general handily gained reelection in November. Industry watchers don't expect this political up-and-comer
to stop there."
Here's a look back at some of Spitzer's higher-profile tech industry efforts, documented in the pages of Network World and our sister publications:
• In 2006, Spitzer was among a slew of attorneys general filing a joint antitrust lawsuit against seven dynamic RAM makers
over alleged price fixing. Spitzer said at the time that the alleged conspiracy added at least $1 billion to the cost of the memory chips.
• Spitzer in 2005 and 2006 went after alleged spyware companies Intermix Media and Direct Revenue LLC. Both companies disputed Spitzer's charges, though both companies' names also came up in a class action lawsuit filed in
2006 by an antispyware activist and lawyer named Ben Edelman, who accused Yahoo of placing advertisements on spyware-vendor and "low-quality" sites. By the way, Spitzer in 2003, helped to get Yahoo to change its marketing policy after getting slapped for telemarketing and e-mail campaigns directed
at people who had asked not to be contacted.
• In late 2005, Spitzer investigated Sony BMG Music Entertainment's use of extended copy protection software, which used a special "rootkit" cloaking technique to disguise its presence on a PC, and is extremely difficult to remove.
It was also considered a security risk by many computer experts and was treated as spyware by many security vendors. After weeks of unrelenting criticism over
its use of the software, Sony eventually announced plans to pull XCP CDs from store shelves and launched a program to allow its customers to exchange their music for CDs that
did not have the copy-protection software installed. Meanwhile, Network World columnist Scott Bradner predicted at the time that Sony's digital rights management settlement would help usher Spitzer into the governor's mansion.
