http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20040218-084308-1780r.htm A stitch in crime By Kenneth W. Starr Microsoft's compliance with court orders and antitrust law is mirroring its feckless approach to software security. Time and again, the company has flouted the remarkably weak antitrust settlement it reached with the Justice Department. Then, only after a Microsoft abuse becomes painfully embarrassing, the company seeks to "patch" its problem. It seemed obvious to industry observers from the very start that the much-criticized settlement contained so many loopholes that Microsoft could continue to avoid competing in the marketplace on the merits. Even the cynics assumed Microsoft would comply with its court-mandated obligations, since the settlement conveniently required no significant changes in its conduct. But the cynics were too trusting. Ironically, Microsoft has managed to commit multiple violations of a very bad deal. Call it adding insult to injury. The Justice Department now acknowledges that a provision requiring Microsoft to license certain parts of computer code to rivals is not spurring "the emergence in the marketplace of broad competition to the Windows Desktop." Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly agrees, yet maintains that the settlement is otherwise generally working. The stark reality is that the settlement has been market-tested for two years, but the market that Microsoft unlawfully monopolized has not been pried open one iota. Microsoft's stranglehold over the market for personal computer operating systems, as well as all collateral markets from which competition could theoretically emerge, has in fact increased since the ink dried on the settlement. Try as one may, it is impossible to identify a single competitor who has gained even 1 percent of the market share from Microsoft as a result of this decree. [...] _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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