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PLEASE FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. DO NOT SPAM IT PLEASE.
The following e-mail is Copyright 1998 Committee for the Moral Defense of Microsoft
and is being distributed by permission. This e-mail may be distributed electronically
provided that it not be altered in any manner whatsoever. All notices including this
notice must remain affixed to this article. [v3.0: Mar.2.98]
A MESSAGE FROM THE COMMITTEE FOR THE MORAL DEFENSE OF MICROSOFT
In the last few weeks, the campaign of envy against Microsoft has been raised to
a fever pitch. It has culminated with the Justice Department's suit against Microsoft,
an ever-growing smear campaign by the company's jealous competitors, the Senate Judiciary
Committee's inquisition into Microsoft's business practices, the grotesque spectacle
of Ralph Nader's kangaroo court, and finally Judge Jackson's cease-and-desist order
forcing Microsoft to forfeit its right to decide how it will sell its own products.
Luckily there is an answer to the screaming of the anti-Microsoft mob: the truth.
The truth is:
- that Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Internet Explorer are Microsoft's property--not
by permission of the government, but by right;
- that, in bundling these products together, Microsoft has respected the rights of
its customers and business partners--that it has neither forced computer manufacturers
to accept its licensing contracts, nor has it forced consumers to use its web browser;
- that Microsoft's dominant share of the market has been gained by making better
products at lower prices, as judged by consumers in a free market--that most consumers
have voted with their dollars for Microsoft rather than its competitors;
- that the motive force behind the persecution of Microsoft is the envy of its competitors,
who are colluding to destroy free competition, not to preserve it, by lobbying to
impose onerous restrictions on their largest competitor;
- that the Justice Department's assault on Microsoft is a violation of Microsoft's
rights, an instance of real coercion and genuine "restraint of trade,"
and a complete inversion of justice;
- that the Antitrust laws punish America's geniuses in order to appease the envy
of the less successful.
The issue here is much broader than the fate of Microsoft. Do you want to live in
country where achievement is resented and attacked, where every innovator and entrepreneur
has to fear persecution from dictatorial regulators and judges, enforcing undefined
laws at the bidding of jealous competitors? Or do you want a free market, in which
innovators and entrepreneurs are free to rise as far as their ability can carry them,
without being held down by arbitrary and unjust government regulations? If you want
a free, productive, benevolent society, then you must ACT NOW.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1. EDUCATE YOURSELF ON ANTITRUST
Visit http://www.moral-defense.org for essays and commentary on the government's
assault against Microsoft. The site includes essays by Robert W. Tracinski, Glenn
Woiceshyn, Greg Shoom, and many others. If you wish to understand these issues more
fully, read "Antitrust," by Alan Greenspan, as well as "Notes on the
History of American Free Enterprise" and "America's Persecuted Minority:
Big Business" by Ayn Rand. All of these essays are printed in Ayn Rand's *Capitalism:
The Unknown Ideal* which is available in your local bookstore or on our website.
2. EDUCATE YOUR CONGRESSMAN AND SENATOR
In order to stop the assault on business heroes like Bill Gates, we must educate
members of Congress on the facts of the Microsoft case. The Senate Judiciary Committee
has scheduled another hearing to examine antitrust issues in the computer industry,
and we need your help to ensure that they hear from individuals about the injustice
of the Justice Department's antitrust suit against Microsoft, and why the nonobjective
antitrust laws should be repealed. Fax, phone, or e-mail the committee members and
ask them to stop the persecution of America's greatest minority: the successful innovator.
For a list of phone and fax numbers visit http://www.moral-defense.org
3. SIGN OUR ONLINE PETITION
Sign the on-line "Petition to Stop the Persecution of Microsoft" at http://www.moral-defense.org.
This petition will be presented to the government in the next few months. Time is
limited, so sign the petition now! A copy of the petition is attached below.
4. TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW ABOUT OUR PETITION
Make sure to tell everyone you know (especially in the media and in the computer
industry) about our petition to stop the persecution of Microsoft. Every signature
counts.
5. FORWARD THIS E-MAIL MESSAGE TO OTHERS
If you need a clean up to date copy of this message, please visit: http://www.moral-defense.org
By acting now, you could help turn the tide of the campaign of envy against Microsoft.
Thank you,
Robert W. Tracinski,
Director, Committee for the Moral Defense of Microsoft
Mark Da Cunha, MBA
Asst. Director, http://www.moral-defense.org
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A PETITION TO STOP THE PERSECUTION OF MICROSOFT
To: US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee,
Attorney General Janet Reno, and President Bill Clinton.
Fellow Americans,
The Declaration of Independence proclaims that the government's fundamental purpose
is to protect the rights of the individual, and that each individual has an inalienable
right to the pursuit of happiness. Throughout America's history, this noble idea
has protected the individual's right to pursue his own happiness by applying his
energy to productive work, trading the products of his effort on a free market and
rising as far as his abilities carry him.
Over the past century, however, this freedom has been under attack, and one notorious
avenue of this attack has been the antitrust laws. Under the guise of "protecting
the public," these laws have allowed envious competitors and power-hungry officials
to attack successful businessmen for the crime of being successful. It has led to
the ugly spectacle of the creative geniuses of the business world--the men who have
made this country great--being branded as oppressive tyrants, whose hard-won business
empires must be broken to pieces and subjected to the control of government regulators.
The Justice Department's current suit against Microsoft is the latest example of
this trend. It is based on envy for the productive ability of Microsoft and its founder,
Bill Gates. The result of this suit, if successful, will be to deprive Mr. Gates
of his right to control his own company, and to deprive the company of its ownership
and control of its own products.
The Justice Department's case--and indeed the entire edifice of antitrust law--is
based on the bizarrely inverted notion that the productive actions of individuals
in the free market can somehow constitute "force," while the coercive actions
of government regulators can somehow secure "freedom."
The truth is that the only kind of "monopoly" that can form in a free market
is one based on offering better products at lower prices, since under a free market
even monopolies must obey the law of supply and demand. Harmful, coercive monopolies
are the result, not of the operation of the free market, but of government regulations,
subsidies, and privileges which close off entry to competitors. No business can outlaw
its competitors--only the government can.
We hold that Microsoft has a right to its own property; that it has the authority,
therefore, to bundle its properties--including Windows 95 and Internet Explorer--in
whatever combination it chooses, not by anyone's permission, but by absolute right.
We hold that to abridge this right is to attack every innovator's right to the products
of his effort, and to overthrow the foundations of a free market and of a free society.
We do not want to live in country where achievement is resented and attacked, where
every innovator and entrepreneur has to fear persecution from dictatorial regulators
and judges, enforcing undefined laws at the bidding of jealous competitors. We realize
that our lives and well-being depend on the existence of a free market, in which
innovators and entrepreneurs are free to rise as far as their ability can carry them,
without being held down by arbitrary and unjust government regulations.
As concerned citizens, we ask that the Justice Department's case against Microsoft
be dismissed. We call for a national debate over the arbitrary and unjust provisions
of the antitrust laws and for an end to the practice of persecuting businessmen for
their success.
Insert your signature online at http://www.moral-defense.org
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