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Re: Suggestion for Breaking Microsoft's Monopoly
de Anonymous 05/28/2006 06:01
> the
> government requiring Microsoft to make Windows and MS Office open
> source? Or maybe even all it's programs open source?
The problem is that Microsoft holds copyrights and various other legal
protections on their software.
The government *CAN* just walk into the Redmond offices and demand that
MS make all of its software open source and non-proprietary, but the
legal consequences would be rather staggering. If the federal
government were to do that, hundreds of other companies (vendors and
retailers of Microsoft products) would join forces with other
commercial interests (any company in the Fortune 1000 that doesn't want
the government to force them to give away their trade secrets), and the
legal battle would wage-on for decades. It would be like a Godzilla
movie, where the two biggest monsters fight for supremacy and the local
population runs for their lives.
Plus the horrible news coverage during an election year...no politician
would agree to that.
The government DID already sue and convict MS back in the 90's for
various and asundry crimes. As of this date, I don't recall MS ever
paying any of those fines or doing anything more than flipping the
middle finger to the federal government.