In Microsoft we trust

摘要

Sun filed an antitrust suit against Microsoft in March 2002, alleging numerous violations of the antitrust laws. Whether Sun prevails has little to do with Sun's specific allegations and the evidence supporting them. The larger question is whether Sun can surmount the obstacles presented by Henry Manne's well-funded Law & Economics Center at George Mason University School of Law, which gives federal judges all-expense-paid courses explaining why every antitrust law should be ignored. The one-sidedness of the instruction amounts to indoctrination. The judges' expenses are paid by vehement opponents of antitrust law - by potential defendants in antitrust suits in the center's early days, and later by foundations that are on its side. The written antitrust laws should give Sun excellent chances of victory. The relevant statutes seem to outlaw unfair methods of competition, contracts and combinations that restrain trade, monopolization or attempts at monopolization, and price discrimination or acquisitions that may reduce competition or create a monopoly.