Readers Comments on Microsoft

Editor: The $613 million fine the European Union levied last month against Microsoft is unwarranted and this Eurocratic attack on Microsoft is yet another example of socialist central planners hatred for the workings of a competitive free market.

Microsoft is not a monopoly. It is a wildly successful American company that has dominated the world market by offering consumers a superior product.

Not only is the $613 million fine the Eurocrats levied on Microsoft unwarranted, but the EU is demanding that Microsoft hand over its product to its competitors. This is outrageous. The EU allegedly targeted Microsoft because the company embeds a wide variety of features in its enormously popular Windows operating system. But most consumers want such features as a media player included in the software package they purchase with a computer.

When someone buys a car he expects it to come with a radio. Very few consumers want to shop for an after-market radio and have it installed in their new car. But installing radios in new cars is not regarded as unfair or monopolistic. Microsoft is selling convenience, which is what the vast majority of consumers want. The competitive free market, not effete Eurocrats, should pick winners and losers.

As it was in this country, this latest attack on Microsoft is driven by the company's competitors and their Eurocrat accomplices who detest the free market, which produces winners and losers. This ruling, which Microsoft is sensibly appealing, harms not only the company, but also millions of investors who own Microsoft shares either directly or through pension funds, Mutual Funds, IRA and 401(k) accounts.

Richard Lessner, Executive Director - American Conservative Union

Once again Microsoft is being attacked for its success. This time the perpetrator is not the U.S. government but the European Union, which is demanding that Microsoft remove Media Player from Windows and pay a fine of $600 million. This is another unjustifiable assault on Microsoft's property rights. Microsoft, like any other company, should have the right to decide what features should or should not be included in its products.

The alleged justification for the European Union's assault on Microsoft is that it "has abused its virtual monopoly power" and engaged in "unfair" competition by making its Media Player an integral part of its operating system. But there is nothing abusive or unfair in taking advantage of one's earned market share to offer customers a better deal than the competition. In fact, the only thing that is abusive and unfair in this case is the government's use of force to penalize one company in order to help its less efficient competitors.

David Holcberg
Ayn Rand Institute

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