Re: Microsoft Increased Lobbying in '98

[stan johnson <sjohnson@gwi.net>]

** Reply to note from ericb@pobox.com Tue, 29 Dec 1998 21:37:05   
-0500 
 It may be important that Microsoft competitors helped speed up the 
 progress of a lawsuit that many people on this list support... but 
 those companies did not do it for altruistic reasons.  
 
I'm puzzled. Does this mean that, in your opinion, the motivations of   
M$ competitors are relevant to M$'s guilt or innocence? It is, after all,   
constitutional to petition the government for a redress of grievances. 
 
Non_M$, for example, could be a horrific company, second perhaps   
only to M$ in its unethical and illegal activities, but I see no way that   
Non_M$'s motivations [nor their own possible or even adjudicated guilt   
for that matter] could have any relevance to the question of whether   
M$ acted contrary to the law. It might conceivably be relevant to the   
question of a proper remedy, if M$ were convicted. 
 
I'm not a lawyer, however; I would be interested in any better-informed   
opinions on this.

-- 
Stan Johnson    TeamOS/2
sjohnson@gwi.net