The True Believer
pbs.org | at | by Mike
These are happy days in Redmond, Washington, with Microsoft having defeated, coopted, or survived the Department of Justice, depending on what side of the issue you stand. Microsoft shares are surging, and the future seems bright with only a few more legal speed bumps in the way. There are the private anti-trust suits from AOL/Netscape, Sun, and others. There are a few class-action lawsuits still pending in California, where Microsoft runs afoul of a state anti-trust law. And there are the inevitable patent infringement cases that have dogged Microsoft for years. These latter lawsuits are the topic of this column.
The only part of the final judgment I like is the part most Microsoft foes hate the most. Instead of a panel of three outside observers to monitor Microsoft's compliance with the judgment, the compliance officer will be one person chosen by Microsoft from its own ranks. While this would appear to be a matter of having the fox guard the hen house, the judgment specifically makes the Microsoft board of directors personally responsible for compliance. So if the compliance officer, in a moment of weakness, looks the other way as Microsoft crushes an opponent in violation of the judgment, Gates, Ballmer, Shirley and the others will have to pay, personally. I like that.