The idea is that it's legal to dominate your competitors so long as everyone is playing in the same park and everyone abides by the same rules. Of course, even in sports, playing fields are rarely level, and we all know about the home-field advantage. The keepers of baseball diamonds know how to groom the infield dirt and grass to compensate for a slow cadre of infielders or to help a speedy lead-off batter. Football-stadium groundskeepers advise their teams' quarterbacks on swirling wind patterns in the end zones.
Savvy teams know just how far they can go to exploit the home-field advantage.
And you would think every team knows not to spit on the umpire. Getting back to antitrust, these are lessons one has to conclude Microsoft evidently hasn't mastered. After the company bested the Justice Department in negotiating the 1995 consent decree between the two parties, Microsoft acted as if the DOJ Antitrust Division was just another vanquished opponent. Regardless of the outcome of the DOJ's recent complaint that Microsoft's practices in licensing Windows and Internet Explorer to PC vendors violate the consent decree, Microsoft has clearly made a serious strategic error. Rather than relying on consent- decree interpretation from its internal corporate counsel, the company should have done everything possible to make sure the Justice Department approved of the company's licensing practices.