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Fine Microsoft, use funds for new competition Gregory Fossedal
To the Editor: Rather than focusing on breaking apart products and companies that work, the government should fine Microsoft Corporation for its alleged anti-trust violations and use the funds to sponsor grants for competing operating system developments. The fund could be operated by the court itself or by a commission composed of leading members of Congress, industry, and the executive. What everyone wants in this case is competition. Yet out anti-trust remedies focus on the negative - on how to breakup a sensitive organism, a successful modern corporation, into different bits. Leading economists, technology experts, and even developers have weighed in, far enough. The break-up plan is inherently flawed because it supposedly guarantees competition - but competition will only come if other innovators step up to the plate with products. What we are suggesting is direct and positive, and avoids the nightmare complexity of shifting through various breakup proposals and potentially throwing the technology economy into a tailspin, It would also enable policy on operation sytem technology to unfold over time, in a dynamic way - rather than proposing one, static solution now that may be completely obsolete in the fast-changing technological environment. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D) said: "we don't need to break up Microsoft, we need to create more Bill Gateses." I agree with Representative Johnson. Why not promote competition by simply promoting competition. Gregory Fossedal |
