Disappointingly, our favorite monopolist says it’s not fleeing to Canada, despite reports that the British Columbia authorities had invited Microsoft to move there.
The main problem with leaving the country is that the U.S. government and assorted private lawyers wouldn’t simply roll over and say, “Okay, you win, no more antitrust suits.” This government has been known, after all, to pursue even heads of state — witness our highjacking of Panama’s dictator on drug-trafficking charges a few years ago.
No, to get away for good, Microsoft will need to find a place that no one else can find. How about Gilligan’s Island?
Support the Janitors
The incredible wealth spawned by Silicon Valley should be a source of shame when we look at the way companies treat the janitors who work so hard for so little. Read K. Oanh Ha’s story in today’s Mercury News and see if you can justify this situation.
The excuses, of couse, are the usual ones. Janitorial work isn’t highly skilled, which is true. But that’s only a part of it. Here’s another reason: Big, rich companies subcontract their work to third parties, giving them deniability when people ask why they treat the janitors with such indifference.
There is not the slightest sense of community in Silicon Valley these days. The place is going to be nothing but a traffic-choked office park where the wealthiest of the world congregate, including 20-somethings who’ve struck it rich with such surprise. I wonder who’ll take out the trash. Maybe they can hire their mothers or fathers.
Michael McKay comments: I worked my way through college in the mid-80s as a security guard at General Electric (the Nuclear Energy Business Operations plant on Monterey and Curtner). I always found it amusing that the lowest paid janitor was paid more than the Graveyard security guard manager. That’s right, the person in charge of the plant for the first 30 minutes (or so) of any emergency was being paid less a starting janitor. I sympathize with the janitors, but they are hardly alone in being underpaid.
Microsoft, Microsoft, Microsoft
Judge Jackson wisely granted the parties a little more time (Mercury News) to file final arguments in the antitrust trial. He plainly wants to just issue his ruling, however, and be done with it.
This makes some sense, actually. The most important question for the appeals court is not whether a breakup is a good or bad idea, but whether the verdict — the findings of law — should be upheld or overtured. If it’s upheld, then you worry about the penalty.
If the verdict is overturned, antitrust law does not apply to software, period. Which would mean it does not apply to much of anything in the long run. Worth thinking about…
See also: ZDNet: It’s All in the APIs