Not DOJ, but Congress! If you seek to resolve the MS monopoly with a DOJ ordered breakup of Micro$oft, that may (or may not) help to resolve some of the issues discussed here as they pertain to MS, but what's to stop the next MS that comes down the pike? It seems to me that the fundamental problem here is closed proprietary formats of data exchange. Traditional broadcast formats were established by gov't agencies and published "openly". The idea that a broadcaster or TV manufacturer could monopolize a broadcast format such as HDTV, the way that MS does with it's various formats of data exchange would be unthinkable. I certainly don't want the gov't to decide which formats should become the standards, I think the market should decide that, however it seems entirely appropriate to pass legislation requiring that formats of data exchange over the Internet MUST BE OPEN and available to all. This could pertain not only to Streaming Media formats but to office document format's etc.. This type of legislation would forever cripple Micro$oft's (or anyone else's) ability to propigate monopolies from market to market through closed sourcery.
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Not DOJ, but Congress! If you seek to resolve the MS monopoly with a DOJ ordered breakup of Micro$oft, that may (or may not) help to resolve some of the issues discussed here as they pertain to MS, but what's to stop the next MS that comes down the pike? It seems to me that the fundamental problem here is closed proprietary formats of data exchange. Traditional broadcast formats were established by gov't agencies and published "openly". The idea that a broadcaster or TV manufacturer could monopolize a broadcast format such as HDTV, the way that MS does with it's various formats of data exchange would be unthinkable. I certainly don't want the gov't to decide which formats should become the standards, I think the market should decide that, however it seems entirely appropriate to pass legislation requiring that formats of data exchange over the Internet MUST BE OPEN and available to all. This could pertain not only to Streaming Media formats but to office document format's etc.. This type of legislation would forever cripple Micro$oft's (or anyone else's) ability to propigate monopolies from market to market through closed sourcery.