|
|
Petition
A petition to call a stop to the persecution of American Heroes
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 a 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.
|
|
.