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What's New
Microsoft's Real Crime: Success
22 October 1998
The Jewish World Review published a fantastic piece on the Microsoft Case
entitled Microsoft's real crime: success by Jeff Jacoby. Below are the first
four paragraphs:
BY THE TIME THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT'S lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. comes to a close,
the government will have spent millions of dollars on its effort to punish the software
company for its "predatory" behavior. To defend itself, Microsoft will
have spent millions of dollars as well. But consider how great a difference there
is between the government's money and Microsoft's.
Every dollar that Microsoft pays its lawyers is a dollar it earned by providing something
a customer desired. The company's revenues, around $11 billion annually, come from
selling and leasing products that people choose to pay for. Every one of its moneymaking
transactions is voluntary: Microsoft has never used force to confiscate money from
the public.The government, by contrast, acquires nearly all of its revenues -- more
than $1.5 trillion a year -- by force. Fail to pay your taxes, and armed government
agents are liable to confiscate your property or lock you behind bars. Or both.
There are many differences between government and business, but none more basic than
this: Governments depend on coercion, businesses depend on freedom. Yet, perversely,
it is the government that accuses Microsoft of coercive practices.
The heart of the Justice Department's case against Microsoft is that the company
has made Internet Explorer, its web browsing software, an integral part of Windows,
its overwhelmingly popular operating system. Microsoft doesn't charge for Internet
Explorer -- the price of Windows didn't go up when the web browser was added -- and
it doesn't supply it separately. Computer makers wanting to load Windows into their
desktop PCs have to take Internet Explorer as part of the package. This is the "coercion"
which the government is spending millions of dollars to fight.
...[more]
What's Good for Microsoft...
October 20, 1998
The NY TImes published a piece on Microsoft by T.J. Rodgers, president and
chief executive of Cypress Semiconductor. We present some choice excerpts below:
...Tying and price cutting -- adding more value for less money -- is what high-technology
companies do. Apparently, the lawsuit against Microsoft is its penalty for being
too successful at it. To consumers, however, "predatory pricing" means
that a computer that costs $700 today has 50,000 times the power of a $5 million
1951 Univac mainframe computer.
Jim Barksdale, chief executive of the Netscape Communications Corporation, has complained
that Microsoft competes unfairly in the Internet browser market. Yet Netscape itself
is a master of predatory pricing. When we were evaluating which browser to use on
our company computers, I favored Microsoft's Internet Explorer because it is more
compatible with the Microsoft spreadsheets and word processors we already use. But
I lost out on that option because our engineers had already downloaded and begun
to use more than 200 free copies of the Netscape browser and that meant we were committed.
Once they had us (and 85 percent of the browser market), Netscape couldn't have been
more predatory: it charged us $152,000 for 1300 copies of their browser. It turns
out that their real software -- not the version they give away, but the software
for which they provide technical support -- isn't free at all. If Microsoft violated
the law by giving away browsers, why didn't Netscape?...
...can Microsoft really be cheating customers when, at a price of only $99, Windows
98 delivers a more complex program than many million-dollar mainframe software packages
do? For years, Microsoft has enhanced Windows with new features -- spreadsheets,
word processors, fax utilities, etc. -- but somehow it crossed an arbitrary line
by adding a browser...The Justice Department has a point when it complains that Microsoft
has a big marketing advantage when it adds features to Windows. But Microsoft earned
that advantage with years of work and billions of well-invested dollars...
...Lawrence Ellison, the chief executive of the Oracle Corporation, the second largest
software company behind Microsoft, failed with a plan to replace PCs with network
computers so that Oracle's software could replace Windows. Ellison now wants the
courts to take from Microsoft what he was incapable of earning in the free market...
CMDM's
Petition passes 12,000 signatures!
1 October 1998
Please continue to tell your friends about the petition! It only takes 60 seconds
to fill out!
CMDM's
Petition has passed 11,000 signatures!
19 July 98
Please continue to tell your friends about the petition! If you have not signed the
petition, please sign the petition now! It only takes 60 seconds to fill out!
Who
will the Justice Department Go After Today!
The Ayn
Rand Institute's Microsoft Defense Site | June 23, 1998 NEW!
This site is part of the Ayn Rand Instituteís
mission to challenge the altruist-collectivist ideas
The
Brain Thieves: The FTC's Suit Against Intel Is an Attempt to Steal Intellectual Property
by Robert S. Getman NEW!
Big Win For Windows!
CNET Coverage | 23 June 98
Give your attorney
general a piece of your mind
and if they voted for antitrust, give them none of your votes
Antitrust:
A Government of Men, Not of Laws
by Robert S. Getman | 28
May 98
How the non-objective antitrust "laws"
corrupt the American ideal of a "government of laws and not of men."
Press
Release: New Antitrust Suit Reveals Hatred of Success
18 May 98
Leonard
Peikoff's Moral Advice To Microsoft's Bill Gates On What To Do NET
RAVE!
Philosopher and Radio Talk Show Host
Leonard Peikoff-- recently recognized as one of the Top 100 new radio personalities
in America, discusses Microsoft's Battle in Washington via Real Audio. Visit his
website at http://www.pwni.com/audio_shell.html [Requires the free RealAudio 5.0 player--let's
hope the DOJ doesn't go after Real Audio for "dumping"!]
Enjoy a few minutes in Galt's Gulch on CNet Radio [link
to cnet]
Anyone who wants to enjoy a few minutes
in Atlantis should tune into cNet Radio. It features 18 minutes of excerpts (under
the title "Microsoft: Prosecuted or Persecuted?") from audio clips of callers
in support of Microsoft and the Committee for the Moral Defense of Microsoft. Only
three callers declared that they support ProComp, the anti-MS, pro- antitrust organization.
The rest made articulate principled arguments in favor of freedom, individual rights,
and the right of the achievers to be rewarded for their accomplish- ments. This is
what every radio call-in ought to sound like. It's truly an amazing experience, and
I want to offer my profound gratitude to everyone who called in with their well-
thought-out comments. [Requires the free RealAudio player]
Investor's Business Daily Provides
the CMDM Perspective
The May 4, 1998 Investor's Business Daily had a terrific editorial in their "Perspective"
section on the Microsoft case. It also contained several quotes from Robert Tracinski
and referred quite positively CMDM. But the best part is that its theme was that
productive activity is moral because it is selfish. The article concludes:
What might happen if Bill Gates, or the
head of some other big firm, said that he had a right to his profits?
And what might happen if he said he had that right, not because those profits further
economic progress or they help create jobs, but because people have an inalienable
right to make the most of their lives and do the best they can in their time on Earth?
CMDM is a featured link on Yahoo
CMDM is featured in a link on the Yahoo website containing news, articles, audio
recordings of hearings, links, etc. all about the Microsoft Antitrust case.
 CMDM Featured on CNET Digital Dispatch April 26 NEW!
"This week, Microsoft found itself in a unique position. Somehow, this corporation
has spawned movements for and against the way it does business! ProComp wants to
see the company heavily regulated under Sherman antitrust laws. Meanwhile, the Committee
for the Moral Defense of Microsoft wants the company fully unshackled. Which would
you join? Why? To contribute your thoughts, phone CNET at 415/395-7805, enter extension
5400, and leave a message."
Robert Tracinski Interview on CNet Radio April 22 NEW!
Robert Tracinski , Co-founder and Director of the Committee for the Moral Defense
of Microsoft, was interviewed by Brian Cooley on CNet Radio for Tuesday 21 April
1998.
CMDM Article In the Washington Post April 22 NEW!
Press
Release: Three Things You Can Do: Vote for freedom, Protest at Washington, and Support
our organization
14 April 98
Make
YOUR Voice (and not Ralph Nader's dictates) Heard in the Senate Hearings
1 March 1998
Press
Release: Activists
form committee to defend Microsoft from government intervention in computer industry
10 Jan 1998
Capitalism.org's
Defense of Microsoft Site a featured article on C|Net's news.com! 24 Dec 1997
This site was featured as a C|Net article
on news.com.
This site was also mentioned in the WSJ, Forbes, Entertainment Weekly, and elsewhere.
If you find any mention of this site in the media please report it to Mark Da Cunha
at mark@capitalism.org
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