Ruling in Microsoft Case Says Crime Pays
Half a dozen business fools have opined that the Microsoft ruling (“Microsoft Wins Major Points in Antitrust Settlement Ruling,” Nov. 2) is good, or moot, as the network is now the important area of competition.
They neglect the unintended consequence of teaching a very large number of software wizards that crime does pay. They forget that Microsoft was caught and convicted of playing monopoly with their operating system and escaped punishment in a very public way.
A successful Enron, that is what businessmen admire. The law was broken, ethical behavior abandoned, but all that matters is the blessed bottom line. They won.
It is possible that the Europeans will have something to say that is more pointed than our lapdog Justice Department. I can only hope.
B.J. Chippindale
Tujunga
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When a monopoly abuses its power to destroy competition, it may still continue to improve its products, but without viable competition we will never know what browsers could be doing now had healthy competition been allowed.
People may shrug the ruling off merely because we are used to our government favoring the interests of big corporations over individual consumers. Just because we expected it, doesn’t mean we like it.
Brian W. Carver
Riverside
