Re: Microsoft still considering image makeover plan

[Mitch Stone <mstone@vc.net>]

In reply to Chris Pall's message sent 4/15/98 2:06 PM:

>Sure why should they do otherwise? It's not like the public is the
>government, the public can't force Microsoft not to lie....

Not unilaterally, but they (or we) can -- because in the final analysis 
the public =is= the government, and the marketplace. Microsoft is of the 
mistaken opinion that they can buy or lie their way out of this, but in 
stumbling and bumbling forward as though nothing serious has happened, 
they are committing the classic error of failing to see the forest for 
the trees. And these trees can get pretty angry when provoked.

Microsoft thinks this is about their rights. They are wrong. The more 
they play it this way -- the more petulant and self-righteous they become 
in their own defense -- the more they invite public contempt. And that 
contempt can translate into government action, just as it did 100 years 
ago in the first antitrust cases. 

Microsoft is in awfully deep now, and with each and every misstep, prove 
that they've got absolutely no clue how to extricate themselves.

   Mitch Stone
   Editor, Boycott Microsoft
   http://www.vcnet.com/bms 
 +---
   If you don't know where you want to go, we'll make 
   sure you get taken. --- Microsoft ad slogan, translated
   into Japanese.