Nothing presented in the case calls for such extreme measures and this ridiculous proposal has nothing to do with the case. It s clear that overzealous prosecutors are only interested in punishment, not in making anything better. From the beginning, we have said that it s not just the effect on Microsoft that threatens the industry. When true, marketplace competition is threatened by artificial regulation, the rest of the industry suffers. Small and medium-sized tech businesses will go out of business as they try to negotiate the legislative hoops and pitfalls that larger companies are more prepared and better able to withstand.
Fewer companies making fewer products means higher prices and less innovation for consumers.
Worst of all, the proposal is a somber harbinger of things to come. By allowing government in at this critical time in the development of America s tech economy, we are transferring the controls from the inventors and innovators to the legislators and regulators. Even early proponents of this case, which include some of the industry s largest and wealthiest companies, are now suffering at their own doing. The government has become the man who came to dinner. Those who thought it would be possible to invite government control in for a limited stay now see that once inside, it is very difficult to remove.