CSEF Background – Lawsuit Abuse: Government Continues to Waste Tax Dollars Pursuing Misguided Case Against Microsoft

Antitrust law was designed to protect consumers

81 percent of the American people believe Microsoft has been good for consumers (Wirthlin Worldwide poll).

Nearly 250 of the nation’s leading economists have signed a open letter to President Clinton stating “consumers of high technology have enjoyed falling prices, expanding outputs, and a breathtaking array of new products and innovations.”

Browser technology has fueled the explosion of Internet traffic

Though the technology is less than five years old, Internet browsers have given consumers access to more services, innovations and information than at any time in human history.

The Internet has had the fastest adoption rate of any new communications medium in history. Over 50 million users were connected in the first five years.

In five years, the price of a browser has dropped from $49 to free.

According to the Commerce Department, Internet traffic doubles every 100 days.

Microsoft’s competitors are thriving

In the past year AOL’s stock has risen 838% and Sun Microsystems is up 209%. And since November 1998, Netscape’s stock value has doubled.

Netscape’s CEO Jim Barksdale has stated he intends to distribute 159 million copies of its browser — more than twice the number of people currently surfing the Internet.

Consumers are benefiting, competitors are thriving and yet the government continues to waste millions of tax dollars threatening an innovative, productive industry.