From: Billy Brown (bbrown@transcient.com)
Date: Sat Apr 29 2000 - 14:01:01 MDT
Martin Ling wrote:
> I strongly advise you to read Judge Jackson's original Findings of Fact
> in the Microsoft case, at:
>
> http://usvms.gpo.gov/ms-conclusions.html
>
> Microsoft's practices have sought to establish and maintain a monopoly
> in the operating system field. They have then used the leverage this has
> given them to establish strongholds in other areas. In all of these,
> they have ignored standards compliance, acted uncompetetively to the
> point of illegality and in general been directly in the way of free and
> open control of technological development - something I know people on
> this list support.
So we're back to this, are we?
The laws Microsoft is accused of breaking are so vague as to be
meaningless - there is literally no possible course of conduct a business
could adopt that could not be construed as a violation. The only thing that
distinguishes Microsoft from detractors like Sun is that MS has been better
at competing in the free market.
Microsoft competes vigorously in the market, using every tool available to
it. That is exactly what companies are supposed to do, and I applaud them
for it. I don't care how much damage they've done to their competitors,
because damaging competitors is what a company is supposed to do. The
purpose of a market is to benefit customers, after all.
Any attempt to replace this vigorous competition with some kind of managed
"fair" competition will simply hobble the operation of the market and create
excuses for further government meddling. History shows that government is
not fit to judge what products consumers what, how much they should cost,
how they should be bundled, or what technologies should be used to build
them. Leaving these decisions up to the market may not always produce
perfect results, but it does give us steady improvement over time.
Government intervention, OTOH, simply replaces voluntary choices with a
political process that inevitably leads to inefficiency, low quality,
stifled innovation and lack of choice for consumers.
Billy Brown
bbrown@transcient.com
http://www.transcient.com
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