A Lack of Good Faith Bargaining

Chuck Talk writes “Apparently, the Department of Justice is beginning to awaken to the fact that Microsoft is not living up to the terms of its less than spectacular antitrust settlement. The case of Microsoft is unique in the annals of history, for it represents the first time a loser in an Antitrust settlement has successfully dictated the terms of its own punishment and been given the opportunity to enforce its own compliance. All of this leaves me wondering exactly what the hell were the attorneys who negotiated this settlement thinking?

I know that they would not have accepted bribes; they have better morals than that. I know they could not believe that Microsoft was truly reformed (they had too much evidence to the contrary). I know they would not simply give up due to weariness; the Department never sleeps when it wants something done. So I am left wondering why they settled, and just who ordered the settlement.

Microsoft has exhibited and continues to exhibit a predatory practice of attacking any potential competitor. Interestingly enough, when the shoe is on the other foot, the software monopoly chooses to contest and deny the very things it has been losing in several significant and ongoing court battles.

No matter what the latest plot to own UNIX contains, it always fails on one important point. That point is that the ownership of UNIX has become like Windows, a many-splintered thing. The Windows operating environment, for all of its repolishings, has become its own competition and its own worst enemy. Microsoft has failed to understand the need to reward customer and partner loyalty, and has focused only on the dollar generation side of the business model.”