This comment was one of some 30,000 submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice arguing for and against acceptance of a Final Judgment resolving an antitrust case against Microsoft Corporation. It was one of only 47 letters forwarded by DOJ to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and one of only five that supported the settlement. The court subsequently ruled to accept the Final Judgment.
“The proposed Final Judgment brings to an end, rightly so, litigation that has been rendered meaningless or counterproductive by changing market conditions. Since 1998, phenomenal increases have occurred in the power of computers, their ability to store information, and the speed of data transmission. Products that were once at the core of the Microsoft case have disappeared, changed dramatically, been superceded by others, or been sold or merged with others. The result is a product landscape that would be almost unrecognizable to a juror or jurist studying Microsoft in 1998.”
Joseph Bast is a Senior Fellow at The Heartland Institute. He cofounded Heartland in 1984, serving as executive director then as president & CEO until January 2018. His research and writing focuses on climate change and energy policy.
