My mail-box continues to overflow with wisdom from the pro-monopoly
folks. Herewith the 2 latest examples.
Charles Mueller, Editor
ANTITRUST LAW & ECONOMICS REVIEW
http://webpages.metrolink.net/~cmueller
**********
Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: MRand33609 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 1998 16:59:06 EST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: US vs Microsoft
Organization: AOL (http://www.aol.com)
s Microsoft Evil?
How is it that in the United States -- the home of such men as Thomas
Edison, Henry Ford and the Wright Brothers -- could that question even be
reasonably postulated? Bill Gates the most productive man in the United
States,
is actually being persecuted for being productive . . . . for running the
largest computer-software company in the world.
To me, this issue should not even be discussed between rational people.
It would be like debating over the answer to a simple arithmetic problem or
the
shape the Earth. But this is an issue; an issue that has been avoided for the
last century in this country.
Think; if it were evil to create better products at lower prices,
then would that imply that building the worst products at outrageous prices is
good.
I once thought that Ayn Rand was exaggerating when she claimed that
people
held the phrase, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his
need" as a moral ideal. But once again the Ralph Nadar's and Janet Reno's are
proving that they do.
Imagine penalizing Bill Gates 1 million dollars a day for running a good
business.
What's next? Failing Johnny because he got all the answers right on his
test, while giving Steve a full ride to Harvard because he never went to
class.
To learn more about the specifics of the Justice Department's vendetta
against Mr. Gates and Microsoft visit the following website;
http://www.capitalism.org/microsoft
-Michael Randall
*******************
Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: MRand33609 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 1998 16:57:25 EST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Stop the Persecution of Microsoft
Organization: AOL (http://www.aol.com)
---start of e-mail----
PLEASE FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW.
The following e-mail is Copyright 1997 by Mark Da Cunha and is being
distributed by permission. This e-mail may be distributed
electronically provided that it not be altered in any manner
whatsoever. All notices including this notice must remain affixed to
this article. [v2.0: Dec.13.97]
STOP THE PERSECUTION OF MICROSOFT
In the last few weeks, the campaign of envy against Microsoft has
been raised to a fever pitch. It has culminated with the Justice
Department's suit against Microsoft, an ever-growing smear campaign
by the company's jealous competitors, the Senate Judiciary
Committee's inquisition into Microsoft's business practices,the
grotesque spectacle of Ralph Nader's kangaroo court, and finally
Judge Jackson's cease-and-desist order forcing Microsoft to forfeit
its right to decide how it will sell its own products.
Luckily there is an answer to the screaming of the anti-Microsoft
mob:
the truth.
The truth is:
- that Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Internet Explorer are
Microsoft's property--not by permission of the government, but by
right;
- that, in bundling these products together, Microsoft has respected
the rights of its customers and business partners--that it has
neither forced computer manufacturers to accept its licensing
contracts, nor has it forced consumers to use its web browser;
- that Microsoft's dominant share of the market has been gained by
making better products at lower prices, as judged by consumers in a
free market--that most consumers have voted with their dollars for
Microsoft rather than its competitors;
- that the motive force behind the persecution of Microsoft is the
envy of its competitors, who are colluding to destroy free
competition, not to preserve it, by lobbying to impose onerous
restrictions on their largest competitor;
- that the Justice Department's assault on Microsoft is a violation
of Microsoft's rights, an instance of real coercion and genuine
"restraint of trade," and a complete inversion of justice;
- that the Antitrust laws punish America's geniuses in order to
appease the envy of the less successful. The issue here is much
broader than the fate of Microsoft. Do you want to live in 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? Or do you want 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? If you want a free, productive, benevolent society, then
you must act now.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1. Educate yourself.
Visit http://www.capitalism.org/microsoft for essays and commentary
on the government's assault against Microsoft. The site includes
essays by Robert W. Tracinski, Glenn Woiceshyn, Greg Shoom, and
many others. If you wish to understand these issues more fully,
read "Antitrust," by Alan Greenspan, as well as "Notes on the
History of American Free Enterprise" and "America's Persecuted
Minority: Big Business" by Ayn Rand. All of these essays are
printed in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.
2. Educate your Congressman.
In order to stop the assault on business heroes like Bill Gates, we
must educate members of Congress on the facts of the Microsoft case.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled another hearing to
examine antitrust issues in the computer industry, and we need your
help to ensure that they hear from individuals about the injustice of
the Justice Department's antitrust suit against Microsoft, and why
the nonobjective antitrust laws should be repealed. Fax, phone, or
e-mail the committee members and ask them to stop the persecution of
America's greatest minority: the successful innovator. For a list of
phone and fax numbers visit http://www.capitalism.org/microsoft.
3. Sign our on-line petition.
Sign the on-line "Petition to Stop the Persecution of Microsoft" at
http://www.capitalism.org/microsoft. This petition will be presented
to Judge Jackson, to the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee,
to Attorney General Janet Reno, and to President Clinton within
the next few months. Time is limited, so sign the petition now! A
copy of the petition is attached below.
4. Tell others about the petition.
Make sure to tell everyone you know (especially in the media and in
the computer industry) about our petition to stop the persecution of
Microsoft. Every signature counts.
5. Forward this mesage to others.
If you need a clean copy of this message, please visit:
http://www.capitalism.org/microsoft/email1.html
Yours for rights, reason, and reality,
Mark Da Cunha, MBA
Webmaster for "In Defense of of Bill Gates and Microsoft" located at
http://www.capitalism.org/microsoft.
----------------------------
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 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.
Signed
[insert your signature here online at
http://www.capitalism.org/microsoft ]
---end of e-mail----
