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09/02/2013

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Masaccio Masolino

You ignore the damage done by the Microsoft operating system monoculture. It had no competition, so hackers made a mess of security flaws. It was cheaper to fix the flaws than to redesign the system to make security a priority, so Microsoft is the gigantic hole in the internet that lets spammers, phishers and the NSA run free. Nothing has changed that, including the illusory market system. Microsoft is losing because its main platform, the desktop computer, is losing share to smaller systems, not because it is losing its monopoly in desktop systems. The security flaws, including the day zero exploits described in the Snowden revelations, remain.

Markets don't fix things that are expensive to fix, and risky. That is just as true of the horribly flawed Microsoft operating system as it is of the lack of competition in the provision of telecommunications services and a hundred other systematically weak capital-intensive businesses. They use government and other gigantic forces to protect their interests.

As to the complexity of antitrust cases, perhaps you could ask why they are so complex and time-consuming. Could that be a systemic bias in the courts in favor of business?

Aaron Schroeder

A small typographical correction: "attorney generals" should read "attorneys general".

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