Microsoft Discovers The Virtues of Anti-Trust Law
Microsoft is complaining that Google’s deal giving them access to millions of digitized books is anti-competitive and monopolistic.
The idea of Microsoft demanding protection from monopolistic practices is utterly breathtaking in its degree of chutzpah and hypocrisy.
I suspect that Microsoft is trying to appeal directly to Christine Varney, the head of the anti-trust division at the Department of Justice, who has been an outspoken critic of Google. (I mean “appeal” in the colloquial sense, not in the term-of-art legal sense, of course.)
Lots more info about the Google case can be found in a recent Wired article.
September 19th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
How is this “hypocrisy” on Microsoft’s part? People came after them for antitrust stuff, so now they should be prohibited from doing the same when the tables are turned? Your argument makes zero sense.
It’s more hypocrisy on Google’s part, if anything. They’ve complained about monopolistic practices in the past, and now they’re guilty of the same behavior. And, depending on which side the “tech media and blogs” take, it’ll be hypocrisy on their part too, if they say “When Microsoft did it it is was bad, but for Google it’s no problem at all.”
September 20th, 2009 at 7:15 am
It’s hypocrisy because Microsoft not only denied the antitrust charges, but fundamentally denied the whole idea. They lied in Federal Court! They did their best to break the law. And now, having spit in the face of the Justice Dept, they come back asking for help.
September 20th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
I agree with Pepe. MS learned during that period how to deal with the government, and now they are playing by those same rules. I do agree that MS is wrong to use these laws to its advantage, but only because anti-trust laws are unjust and wrong to begin with. And MS is not a single-minded, individual with an idealogical mission for the free market (I am) – it’s a large group, that I’m sure was radically changed (corrupted) by the anti-trust case. What effect will a few years of Christine Varney have on Google? The government should not have this power over the free market, it corrupts both sides.
September 20th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
@Mike H: I disagree with your overall point. The only way to maintain a free market, that’s in the public interest, is if everybody follows a reasonable set of rules. I don’t have any strong opinion about the particular issue here with Google, but I think it’s important for the anti-trust division to keep the market free and fair. Anti-trust laws have to be applied carefully; the issues can be complicated; the laws need to keep up with changing facts on the ground; and the Justice Department is not infallible. But the ideal state of things would not be for there to be no anti-trust laws at all.