Microsoft's 'monopolies' spur competition seattletimes.com
Oh dear, an opposition viewpoint, making the rounds of op-ed pages. Originated at the Washington Post, that liberal rag from that den of iniquity, our nation's capital. On Monday, showed up in the Boston Globe. Yesterday, it hits the home town paper. The last two both made it to the news.com "other stories" list, I don't know if that means nobody read the article there or if they're just hard up for pieces sympathetic to Microsoft. And why don't they pick things up from the Post in the first place?
Anyway, to expand the horizons of the "Chrysler car radio"/"Just like Disk Defrag" defense line crowd, here's some new ones:
Even if Microsoft has indeed ''tied'' two separate products in a single sale, the so-called tie-in is little different from packaging tires with automobiles, cream with coffee, laces with shoes, even left gloves with right gloves.
Or, to paraphase Carly Simon, "I had IE, there were clouds in my coffee... ". Bill Gates is Warren Beatty! Or should that be vice versa, in the inevitable miniseries? (just kidding about the last one, it's probably pretty evitable).
In case anyone was wondering where this really came from, the credit is clear:
Robert A. Levy is senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute.
I don't know, I think Microsoft has to break out beyond Libertarian/Objectivist circles if it wants to carry the day on the hearts and minds or political fronts. Legally, I don't think those circles carry much weight either.
Cheers, Dan
|
