The coming confrontation between the US Justice Department and Microsoft Corporation demonstrates that government does, in fact, have a role to play in the Digital Revolution.
And it's high time it got on with it.
The Web and the Net are notoriously libertarian, but libertarianism isn't a large enough political philosophy to encompass Bill Gates, his greed, or his disturbing, castle-building ego.
If American journalism were functioning, it might have challenged Microsoft's monopolistic, predatory running-amok long ago. But Microsoft ended up in one form of partnership or promotional arrangement with half the American press, from NBC to The New York Times. And many of the journalists Gates couldn't go into business with, he hired.
That leaves the Feds, the only company in town bigger than Microsoft; the only one with the muscle and the money to challenge it.
The Justice Department's petition against Microsoft is just, reasonable, and overdue. Essentially, the legal struggle centers around interpretations of the 1995 consent decree between MS and the Justice Department that settled an earlier antitrust conflict. The government says Microsoft has broken the settlement by requiring computer-makers that install Windows 95 to also license and distribute Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser. The government is only asking Microsoft to stop that single practice.
Microsoft says it isn't violating the agreement, just interpreting it differently.
The government's interpretation makes sense for the Internet, and for people who believe the digital age should embrace free market, rather than monopolistic, principles.
Whether or not it intends to, the government is doing what's most needed to ensure commercial competition and free movement of ideas in the digital culture - seeing to it that there is more than one way to navigate and access the Internet and the World Wide Web.
If one car company made 95 percent of the engines in the world's automobiles, this would be a no-brainer; Congress would be holding fist-thumping hearings demanding to know what took the Justice Department so long to get off its duff.
The problem with Microsoft has never been that it's evil, or that Gates is demonic. Actual evil probably requires much more creativity, passion, and political ideology than anyone at or near the top of Microsoft seems to possess.
Rather, the problem is that Microsoft has simply grown too big and has too much cash to spend and too many ways to bend smaller companies to its will. This company is creating an environment in which it is already nearly impossible for other companies to compete.
Libertarians border on fanaticism when they deny government any role in protecting entrepreneurial competition. Their rigidity evokes the tired, unyielding dogmas of liberalism and conservatism rather than a new kind of political thinking.
But then, when it comes to the Internet, opportunistic politicians and out-to-lunch journalists have long defined the issues, and the ones they choose are almost always the wrong ones.
We don't need the federal government to police our language, ensure our decency, or keep Johnny off the Playboy Web site. We do urgently need it to safeguard our freedoms and clear the field for vibrant commerce.
The government needs to demonstrate to Microsoft - and to all the alienated free spirits of the digital world - that it will do whatever is necessary to ensure that cyberspace is a level playing field.
Of course, the fines the Justice Department is seeking against Microsoft for allegedly violating the agreement reached two years ago are ludicrously low. Bill Gates could pay US$1 million a day out of his checking account and still add another couple of wings to his castle outside of Redmond.
Fines like this one are no more bothersome to Gates or his company than mosquitoes on an elephant's behind, even if he does end up paying them after years of ferocious litigation. Maybe threatening to seize the digital chips that control the temperature or display artwork in the countless rooms of his lakeside mansion might do the trick more effectively.
This article appeared originally in HotWired.
Jon Katz loves to get email.
