|
<<
^
>>
Date: 1998-08-01
Update: Kartellklage gegen Microsoft macht Sinn
-.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.-
q/depesche 98.8.1/2
updating 98.5.17/1 et al
Update: Kartellklage gegen Microsoft macht Sinn
Die Klage des des U.S. Justizministeriums stehe felsenfest,
meint Robert Bork in seinem Weissbuch zum Thema Micro/soft &
Macht/missbrauch. Anlass für diese Überzeugung ist ein
Präzedenz/urteil des Obersten Gerichtshofes aus dem Jahre
1951 gegen die Eigentümer des Lorain Journals. Die
Tat/umstände sind frappierend ähnlich: near/on 100prozentige
Marktdominanz & Gebrauch derselben zum Nachteil der
Konsumenten & der Konkurrenz.
-.-.- --.- -.-.- --.- -.-.- --.-
The antitrust case brought by the Department of Justice
against Microsoft is rock solid. That is also true of the
parallel antitrust action brought by twenty states.
The controlling legal precedent is Lorain Journal Co. v.
United States, 343 U.S. 143 (1951). The Journal was a
newspaper that, as the Supreme Court put it, "enjoyed a
substantial monopoly in Lorain Ohio of the mass
dissemination of news and advertising, both of a local and
national character." It had a 99% coverage of Lorain
families. "Those factors," the Supreme Court said, "made the
Journal an indispensable medium of advertising for many
Lorain concerns." A challenge to the Journal's monopoly
arose, however, with the establishment of radio station WEOL
in a town eight miles away. The newspaper responded by
refusing to accept local advertising from any Lorain County
business that advertised on WEOL. The Supreme Court held
that this was an attempt to monopolize, illegal under '2 of
the Sherman Act. There being no apparent efficiency
justification for the Journal's action, it was deemed
predatory and hence illegal.
The parallel between the Journal's action and Microsoft's
behavior is exact. Microsoft has a similarly overwhelming
market share of the market for personal computer operating
systems and it imposes conditions on those with whom it
deals that exclude rivals without any apparent efficiency
justification for such behavior. When a monopolist behaves
in this fashion, it violates '2 of the Sherman Act.
The case against Microsoft is not an attack on vertical
integration; that is not the objection to the coupling of
Microsoft's browser, the Internet Explorer, and its Windows
operating system. Like Lorain Journal, the Microsoft case
concerns a monopolist's horizontal attempt to preserve its
monopoly by destroying a potential rival. An analogy would
be the owner of a toll bridge, which is the only bridge
across a river, paying the owner of land to deny access to a
site where a competitive bridge is partly built. In
Microsoft's case, as in Lorain Journal, the attack is
largely carried out through vertical exclusionary
contracts. The newspaper imposed a requirement that
advertisers not deal with the radio station. Microsoft
imposes multiple requirements on customers and suppliers
that inhibit their dealings with Microsoft's rivals.
Full Text
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/zdnn_smgraph_display/0,3441,2123665,00.html
-.-.- --.- -.-.- --.- -.-.- --.-
TIP
Download free PGP 5.5.3i (Win95/NT & Mac)
http://keyserver.ad.or.at/pgp/download/
-.-.- --.- -.-.- --.- -.-.- --.-
- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.-
edited by Harkank
published on: 1998-08-01
comments to office@quintessenz.at
subscribe Newsletter
- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.-
<<
^
>>
|
|
|
|