cyril_kearney - 12:10 am on Apr 26, 2002 (gmt 0)

john316,
You need to respond to the whole thread. If the States prevail and take Microsoft's intellicetual property then I and other businesses are impacted.

It is neither illegal or morally wrong to be a monopoly. The suit is about the misuse of the power the monopoly has.

No one is arguing that Microsoft should not be made to act properly. But the states are going beyond that.

Big business constantly needs to be restrained so that they do the right things. That's why we have fair labor practices and safety laws.

At the same time Governments need to be curtailed to. That is why we have the Bill of Rights and the Supreme Court. Illinois stopped executions because the last 25 that were to be executed had 13 of the defendant proven innocent.

So Business and Government need to be limited in how they do things. Each have extrodinary powers that get exercised by imperfect people.

Now if you step back and look abstractly, do you want whole basis of copyright protection and the rights to intellectual property sacraficed by the States prevailing.

I don't and by the way I feel that it will so unsettle the economy that I will be negatively impacted.

"the cats out of the bag", is anyone that commented not involved in the outcome of this case?