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Gentlemen:
There is an ironic adage in politics that the last refuge for
self-serving political demagogues is wrapping themselves up in the
American flag. A parallel observation could be that it is the refuge of
anti-competitive monopolists to wrap themselves up in the mantra of free
markets. For those defenders of Microsoft, let's remember that:
1) As part of its stated business strategy, as documented in the
company's own memos brought to light during the trial, Microsoft
DELIBERATELY distributed a version of Java that was defective in order
to contaminate the growing popularity of the language. That's a stated
fact, according to Microsoft's own documentation.
2) During the trial, Microsoft deliberately attempted to mislead the
Judge by rigging product demonstrations to prove the IE couldn't be
removed from Windows when in fact it could be.
3) Concurrent with this lawsuit, Microsoft is also being sued by Blue
Mountain Arts for setting up Microsoft's Outlook Express e-mail system
so that it won't accept e-postcards from Blue Mountain's wildly
successful website at the same time Microsoft was launching their own
e-postcard site.
Why shouldn't there be rules of fair conduct in business as there are in
every other mode of society?
Sincerely,
Michael Strupp
Chicago, IL
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