MS guilty: what then?

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I was hoping that we in the class at Harvard could talk about what
should be done if MS in fact is found guilty in the DoJ-MS trial. JZ's
paper draws up some interesting alternatives on what to do, but I
would like to hear what the forum here says.

So, we assume that MS is guilty. What then? Breaking up the company?
Fine them ( the severe spanking)? Open source code for OS? Regulation
(somebody will have to decide if MS can do this or that)? Other
suggestions?

There is to me no doubt that MS did misuse its monopoly power, but I
am a lot more in doubt on what to do. Perhaps I think that a huge fine
(how big?) or regulation (who gets to regulate?) or the opening of the
source code (will that help anything?) could be some measures, but I
really don't know.

-- Preben Kjaer Kristensen, October 14, 1999

Answers

I suggest you repost this in the joint forum, since I bet the Harvard students will hav a lot to say about this.

-- Hal Abelson, October 15, 1999