“…long-awaited friend-of-the-court brief filed earlier this
week by Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig, in the Department of
Justice’s antitrust case against the software giant. Publicly, a
Microsoft spokesman said Professor Lessig’s brief… was ‘very
positive’ for Microsoft.”
“Nice try. The Lessig brief was anything but ‘very positive’ for
Microsoft. Like similar briefs filed by Judge Robert Bork and
the Software Information Industry Association, the Lessig document
directly contradicts the most critical foundations of Microsoft’s
defense. For Microsoft to say that the professor made points
on both sides of the argument is like saying that, in Mike Tyson’s
most recent boxing match, blows were landed on both sides. True,
but somebody ended up on the canvas. In the Lessig brief, Microsoft
took one on the chin.”
“Lessig sides with the government on all three points [re
Microsoft’s defense against the DOJ’s charge that it violated
antitrust law by illegally tying one product (Internet Explorer) to
another (Windows)]. Software, he says, while certainly different
from other products, can and should still be subject to
anti-competition laws. In fact, it’s probably more important to
apply antitrust laws to software because, as a highly malleable
product, it is more easily manipulated for strategic
advantage.”