The Association for Competitive Technology [3], which was created and funded by Microsoft to defend its interests against charges of antitrust violations, has applauded last week's appeals court ruling reversing the order to break up Microsoft. "From the outset of this trial, the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) has consistently argued that preserving the right of a company to add features to their products is the central issue in this case," states an ACT news release. ACT is one of several "think tanks," including the Independent Institute and the National Taxpayers Union, that have received substantial funding from the company while espousing its position regarding the antritust issue. Some of these financial ties were disclosed when Oracle, one of Microsoft's leading competitors, hired a private investigator [4] to literally dig through ACT's trash in search of incriminating documents.