Will They Listen?

It appears Andy Grove had something to say to lawmakers at The New Democrat Network's West Coast Retreat this week. Grove ask the lawmakers to hold off on legislation that would require digital rights management technology in new products and to think hard before passing legislation that would regulate 802.11 wireless technology. He asked them to develop a comprehensive policy on China--which he said was eclipsing Japan as Intel's second-largest market behind the United States. He also called the Telecommunications Act of 1996 a "big failure" and described a new Hollywood-backed anti-piracy bill as a "horrendous" piece of legislation.

From where I sit, Andy Grove is one of the only people in the industry who is actually speaking up for technology and innovation. I suspect that at times it does not completely sit well with the rest of Intel's Corporate agenda of developing digital copywrite protection at a hardware level.  The question du jour is: Where does Intel really stand?