Word: antitrusters
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...Microsoft was supposed to be an epic ideological showdown--perhaps the greatest since the government broke up John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil trust in 1911. The Department of Justice antitrust chief, Joel Klein, would argue the liberal position that government must intervene when a monopolist abuses its position of dominance in the market. And Microsoft would make the libertarian case that markets work best when they operate freely. But a week into the trial, the real battle seems to be between two warring views of Gates. Is he the brilliant innovator who has brought the wonders of the information...
...government never did use the D word, but Justice Department lawyers have good tactical reasons for keeping Gates' own words and deeds at the heart of their case. Justice began its antitrust campaign against Microsoft with a straightforward claim that the company was guilty of improperly "bundling" its Internet Explorer browser into its popular Windows software. Judge Jackson bought the argument, but it was shot down by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals--a reversal that Microsoft viewed as decisive. Justice is now making a more wide-ranging argument that there is a pervasive pattern of Microsoft's using...
...that those actions had the endorsement of the company itself, and were not carried out by rogue underlings. Personalizing the case also gets Justice out of an ideological quandary. The appeals courts that will probably hear this case--the D.C. Circuit and the Supreme Court--are fairly conservative on antitrust cases. The less the Microsoft case seems to be about antitrust doctrine and the more it is packaged as an attempt to rein in the behavior of a predatory company and CEO, the better Justice is likely to fare on appeal...
...surprisingly, Microsoft has reacted indignantly to the government's "personal attacks on a visionary and innovator." John Warden, delivering Microsoft's opening statement, contended that Gates and his company had done nothing but engage in the hard-driving competition that is the essence of the free market. "The antitrust laws are not a code of civility in business," Warden told the court. He argued that Justice is trying to fix a software market that isn't broken. Microsoft is not a monopoly because there are few "barriers to entry" stopping would-be competitors from jumping in, Warden maintained. "There...
...keep the trial moving briskly--the hope is to wrap up in six to eight weeks, compared with the 13 years the IBM antitrust trial dragged on--Judge Jackson has limited each side to 12 witnesses. And he has imposed the unusual condition that all witnesses submit their direct testimony in written form. Only cross-examination and redirect take place in the courtroom...