A Microsoft Sellout

Mercury News: Tentative Microsoft accord reached. Sources say terms are weaker than those handed down by judge last year.

If the sources are correct, the expected has occurred — a sellout of the American public by an administration that had long since made clear it would do exactly that.

What a sham this has been. What a shameful process, leaving a lawbreaker free to do practically anything it wishes. What a signal to the business community.

If the terms reported are accurate, the states are among the last chance for a serious remedy, as is the European Union and its increasing annoyance with Microsoft. Do they have the stamina and the courage to continue when the most powerful player of all has abandoned the public interest? It will take plenty of both.

Keep in mind that this deal may not happen in the ways the media are reporting so far. Some of the reports have trial-balloon characteristics, and it’s possible the terms will have one or two teeth, as opposed to the almost total cave-in we’re reading about so far. Maybe I’m grasping at straws.

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