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To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (23718)	12/1/1999 10:37:00 PM
From: Gerald R. Lampton	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24154

Uh, who are the LDIAotCSA? Bork? Lessig? Check out any index of law review articles. Any number of professors are developing interventionist theories based on Chicago School techniques (i.e., price theory, or whatever the latest fashion in economics is). How much case law is there that supports this analysis? I'd have to do the research. And why do you think Posner would negotiate a breakup, given his presumably non-latter-day approach? That's just a wild theory I have. I think a breakup is consistent with Microsoft's stated position about wanting to preserve "freedom to innovate" and with the DOJ's position that they do not want a remedy that requires a lot of ongoing government intervention. The only strong argument I've seen against it is that, in the short run, by breaking up Microsoft's software teams and intellectual property, a breakup would increase inefficiency, raise prices, and harm consumers. But that's a short-term phenomenon and would be overcome over time. Conduct remedies are less harmful in the short run but more harmful over the long run because they would endure long past their useful life and would interfere with Microsoft's ability to respond to changing markets. Also, regulations have a tendency to spread. If software markets really are changing as fast as Microsoft says they are, whatever entity or entities come out of this will need all the flexibility they can get and to not be hamstrung by a bunch of conduct remedies that impose increasingly arbitrary restrictions on their business practices. As for the Register, its partiality speaks for itself.