On Defensive, the Other Washington Stands By Its Microsoft nytimes.com
Well, of course they do. Just like our guv, Tommy Thompson, stands by Philip Morris. Nothing wrong with that, either. Just politics as it's always been practiced here, and in the capitalist world in general.
Senator Slade Gorton,a Republican, and others told Microsoft to "fight and fight hard, because nobody is going to fight for you," said Tony Williams, Gorton's chief of staff. Gorton is among those who believe Microsoft has been treated unfairly by both Congress and the Justice Department.
Right, Microsoft is so inept at getting its way in Washington. All those international copyright agreements the lesser Bill is getting negotiated, the new net copyright bill that sailed through Congress, the greater Bill couldn't have had any influence there. I was getting worried, hadn't heard from old Mr. Salvage Rider on this matter in a while. I'm sure he'll do his part when the time comes. Meanwhile, from another of the much dreaded marketing peers:
Yusuf Mehdi, who heads marketing for the Internet Explorer division currently under fire, describes the increasing criticism as conspiracy theory and paranoia in the still very young software field.
"That any one company could actually control so many aspects of a particular business, especially in this kind of industry, is really pretty ridiculous," he said. "From my perspective, just trying to offer a good product and compete on that merit is super hard. If you take your eye off the ball for one minute, you're going to get beat in a heartbeat."
See, this is where I get confused. All the Microsoft advocates here are always telling me that Microsoft's triumph in all areas is inevitable. I don't think it's quite inevitable, but the monopolistic death grip on the internet seems a clear possibility. Plus, I think the "OS/Browser" integration thing is just plain bad software design, with way too much entanglement and confusion between OS and application level code. But who knows, that's just the Microsoft way.
... Rick Wynne has a similar perception about the Gates-Allen ability to get their way with government. "I'm not surprised Microsoft would do something that would draw Justice Department scrutiny. I was surprised the Justice Department actually pursued it."
And, to repeat myself ad nauseum, I'm not holding my breath on this particular action. Who knows what the judge will make of it? There are more battles to come, and other fronts in the war. I'll just keep saying that prayer from The Economist.
Cheers, Dan. |
