Wall Street analysts are missing some very basic issues on Microsoft's chances on appeal. We're all so focused on the stock action that we forget that this drama is taking place in US Federal Courts, on the playing field of people who take a long view of US Constitutional history. And Microsoft is getting pummeled.
For those interested in the Constitutional Law perspective, a great place to start is the web site for Larry Lessig's book "Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace". You can download both the preface and conclusion - although I heartily recommend the entire book. code-is-law.org
Lessig is a professor at Harvard Law and has been an advisor to both Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson and Richard Posner, who tried to mediate a settlement between Microsoft and Justice. Lessig argues persuasively that he who controls the software code has de facto control over many legal rights. The stakes, if Microsoft has the type of control they have been asserting, are much larger than the public has realized. Left unchecked, a Microsoft that controls the code, the cookies files, the security, the electronic wallet.....could have as much power as some of our foreign country adversaries.
I know that it is unusual to buck the Libertarian trend among the digerati, but I like to say that, last time I looked, Microsoft had no Bill of Rights. Why the heck are we so complacent about their power?
At any rate, the stakes are much higher here than Microsoft's effect on the economy. They have lost this trial badly, and they are up against people who are perfectly capable of blipping the stock market rather than compromise on what they see as protecting US Constitutional principles.
I read the Wall Street Journal, Cramer and all the other Street commentary. I'm just quite aware that they have a Big Big Blind Spot. They seem to forget that we have three branches of government in the US and that the Judiciary is both powerful and relatively independent. And the Judiciary is thinking about the year 2050, not the next six months.
Christine
By the way, a big hi to all of my old Motley Fool friends who are making such great contributions to this great SI board! |
