Paid anti-MS lobbyist Ken Starr urges antitrust crackdown

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20040218-084308-1780r.htm

A stitch in crime
By Kenneth W. Starr

    Microsoft's compliance with court orders and antitrust law is 
mirroring its feckless approach to software security. Time and again, the 
company has flouted the remarkably weak antitrust settlement it reached 
with the Justice Department. Then, only after a Microsoft abuse becomes 
painfully embarrassing, the company seeks to "patch" its problem.
    It seemed obvious to industry observers from the very start that the 
much-criticized settlement contained so many loopholes that Microsoft could 
continue to avoid competing in the marketplace on the merits. Even the 
cynics assumed Microsoft would comply with its court-mandated obligations, 
since the settlement conveniently required no significant changes in its 
conduct. But the cynics were too trusting. Ironically, Microsoft has 
managed to commit multiple violations of a very bad deal. Call it adding 
insult to injury.
    The Justice Department now acknowledges that a provision requiring 
Microsoft to license certain parts of computer code to rivals is not 
spurring "the emergence in the marketplace of broad competition to the 
Windows Desktop." Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly agrees, yet maintains that 
the settlement is otherwise generally working. 		
    The stark reality is that the settlement has been market-tested for 
two years, but the market that Microsoft unlawfully monopolized has not 
been pried open one iota. Microsoft's stranglehold over the market for 
personal computer operating systems, as well as all collateral markets from 
which competition could theoretically emerge, has in fact increased since 
the ink dried on the settlement. Try as one may, it is impossible to 
identify a single competitor who has gained even 1 percent of the market 
share from Microsoft as a result of this decree.

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