IP: A day of satisfaction as corporate bully gets comeuppance

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/columns/front/docs/dg040400.htm

Dan Gillmor: A day of satisfaction as corporate bully gets comeuppance
BY DAN GILLMOR
Mercury News Technology Columnist

GUILTY.

Microsoft Corp. is officially a corporate lawbreaker. The rule of 
law, at least for the moment, is victorious over the tyranny of 
untrammeled capitalism.

A federal judge appointed by Ronald Reagan, the most pro-business and 
anti-antitrust president in recent memory, has shown again why our 
system has such strength. Thomas Penfield Jackson, no friend of 
interventionalist government, listened to the testimony and looked at 
the evidence in the landmark Microsoft antitrust trial. He came to a 
common-sense result -- that Microsoft has willfully, repeatedly and 
contemptuously violated the law -- and we are all in his debt.

This is a day for satisfaction, not joy. Those who chortle over a 
bully's comeuppance shouldn't forget that this particular bully has 
done many things right and that most of the people at Microsoft are 
honest and diligent. And given that many Silicon Valley executives 
would mimic Bill Gates' worst acts if they had the chance, their glee 
isn't all that attractive.

....