[1817] in comp.os.os2.announce archive
EurOS/2 September 11 meeting - Will the Microsoft Bandwagon hit the anti-trust buffers?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (euros2@ibm.net)
Tue Sep 10 19:19:35 1996
To: os2ann.DISCUSS@bloom-picayune.MIT.EDU
Date: 29 Aug 1996 06:46:50 GMT
From: euros2@ibm.net
Reply-To: euros2@ibm.net
Reply-to: euros2@ibm.net
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WILL THE MICROSOFT BANDWAGON HIT THE ANTI-TRUST BUFFERS?
Competition has been a major driver in the computer industry. Sometimes
competition thrives naturally, sometimes it has to be encouraged. In the US,
home to the key computer corporations, anti-trust legislation provides the
encouragement. Will Microsoft's history of continuous market advance come to
an end with anti-trust action?
Graham Lea, international expert on Microsoft's business practices, will be
the featured speaker at the next EurOS/2 meeting on September 11th 1996.
Commentator and industry analyst, Graham worked with the European Commission
and the US authorities in connection with earlier anti-trust actions. He holds
the most comprehensive archive of documents on Microsoft outside of Redmond
and the US Justice Department. Graham's firm, Heterodox Computer Industry
Analysts, publishes "Microsoft Monitor". This provides analysis and advice on
topics related to Microsoft's commercial activities and technological
direction. Graham advocates a radical view of the near future for the computer
software industry - for him, the past is not the prologue to the future so far
as Microsoft is concerned.
The formal title of Graham's presentation will be "A background to competition
law and anti-trust, with reference to US v IBM, US (and the Commission of the
European Communities DG IV) v Microsoft, and Caldera v Microsoft". IBM's
skirmishes with anti-trust have been going on for more than 90 years, and it
still remains under investigation, although most constraints are now
withdrawn. Microsoft escaped Federal Trade Commission indecision and the
Department of Justice feebleness, but now faces a formidable opponent in
Caldera. The Caldera case will be over one of the real grounds for the
anti-trust investigation - the alleged sabotage of DR-DOS, which Caldera
acquired from Novell. Netscape has also complained to the Department of
Justice, alleging Microsoft's breaking of the Consent Decree and substantive
new breaches of the anti-trust laws.
In Europe, the Commission of the European Communities Directorate General IV
is actively investigating allegations that Microsoft has competed unfairly.
The Commission potentially presents a harder challenge to Microsoft than the
Department of Justice, especially until a new US President is inaugurated and
a new head of anti-trust at the DoJ is announced.
For an incisive analysis of these complex but vitally important issues, come
and hear Graham Lea explain all at the next EurOS/2 meeting. It will take
place at 4 PM on Wednesday 11th September 1996, at the Moore Stephens Training
Centre, 1 Snow Hill, London EC1A 2EN.
EurOS/2 was formed early in 1996 primarily to encourage direct contacts
between people who have a responsibility to ensure the success of OS/2
implementations. It arranges regular meetings with a mixture of formal and
informal discussion. EurOS/2 also provides an electronic magazine as a channel
for exchange or soliciting of information and for the distribution of product
knowledge in connection with OS/2 developments and the progress of related
products and services. Its web site can be found at
http://www.moorestephens.com/euros2/.
EurOS/2 is chaired by Martin Brampton, who can be contacted at
EurOS2@ibm.net
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