To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (15293 ) 12/21/1997 6:12:00 PM From: Daniel Schuh Read Replies (2) | Respond to
Playing with Justice is playing with fire infoworld.com Whether you're right or you're wrong, flouting the spirit of the law is never a wise move. And yet, as noted in our Page One article this week by Bob Trott and Ed Scannell, Microsoft is doing just that by taking a very narrow view of a federal court order in an effort to make its case that the browser is an integral part of the operating system. It seems to me that Microsoft could easily have sat down with the Justice Department and discussed a way of unbundling Internet Explorer without crippling Windows in the process. By failing to make that effort, Microsoft mistakenly thinks it's going to generate public support for keeping the government out the technology business. But in point of fact, these shenanigans are apt to reinforce a perception of Microsoft as a petulant bully that fails to protect the interests of its customers. So the question is, Has Microsoft lost touch with the basic precepts of jurisprudence, or is its desire to defend its inalienable right to bundle and integrate technologies worth all the negative publicity? IS John Galt!
