Thursday, August 16, 2007

Microsoft Using Government Against Competitors - Joining the Club, I Suppose

Microsoft long ago lost my respect as an organization (and, incidentally, Bill Gates as an individual). But, as this story in Ars Technica points out, Microsoft isn't opposed to using the same tactics that have been used against it for so long: lobbying government to use force against a competitor.

In this case, Microsoft is lobbying against the Google/Doubleclick merger. To see Microsoft using antitrust as a weapon against a competitor is nauseating. Those who don't like large companies should keep in mind that they only have power, beyond their own economic power (i.e., their ability to make a product or provide a service someone wants to buy), through their relationshiop with government.

It's the mixed economy, the perverted mixture of political power and economic power, that causes such sordid displays. And to think that I once imagined Microsoft to be above such things.

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