Re: POL: Reaction to Microsoft Ruling

From: Zero Powers (zero_powers@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed Apr 12 2000 - 18:01:26 MDT


>From: "Michael S. Lorrey" <mike@datamann.com>
>
>"Michael S. Lorrey" wrote:
>
> > Zero Powers wrote:
> > >
> > > >From: "Michael S. Lorrey" <retroman@turbont.net>
> > > >
> > > >Literally by your intepretation, yes, however the US has never
>brought
> > > >an anti-trust suit against a foreign company.
> > >
> > > Wrong again. The US sues foreign companies *all the time* under the
>Sherman
> > > Act. The first time it was done successfully was way back in 1945 in
>the
> > > case of US v. Alcoa (148 F.2d 416). Alcoa was a Canadian corporation
>which
> > > was sued for acts committed *entirely* outside the borders of the US.
>As
> > > long as your business has a sufficient impact on trade in the US, it
>simply
> > > doesn't matter where you are based or where you do business. There is
> > > really no dispute about it.
> >
> > Alcoa: ALuminum COmpany of America..... hardly Canadian.
>
>Morover, ALCOA (Aluminum Company of America) was sued because it had
>obtained a
>total lock on all aluminum mines in Canada of any consequence. As that was
>the
>only supplier of a strategic resource metal to our refineries on the
>Columbia
>River, and its primary customer was the US Gov't, it was obviously a quite
>different situation. Since that was 1945, you might remember that we
>happened to
>be at war at the time, and aluminum was necessary for airplane
>manufacturing.
>ALCOA executives were also convicted of war profiteering....

And so? Your claim, remember, was that "the US has never brought an
anti-trust suit against a foreign company." I have no idea where you got
that from, but I was merely pointing out that that is simply not even close
to being true. The Alcoa case is not the only case where this happened. It
is the landmark case where Judge Learned Hand first held that the Sherman
Act can be used against a foreign company, even if the claimed acts all
occurred outside the US border. There have been *many* others since then.

All of which goes back to the original argument (getting back somewhat to
the thread subject) that moving to a foreign state would not do MS any good
in terms of their antitrust problems.

-Zero

"I like dreams of the future better than the history of the past"
--Thomas Jefferson

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