"The greatest gift of any statesman," wrote Metternich, "rests not in knowing what concessions to make, but in recognizing when to make them."
Step forward William Gates III, co-founder and now Chief Software Architect of the world's most aggressive company. Gates, as every schoolboy knows, has been throwing his weight around in the computer business for decades, a practice which landed him in the US courts on anti-trust charges.
Last year Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson found that Microsoft had violated the Sherman anti-trust Act by unlawfully tying its Internet browser to its Windows operating system. The appropriate legal remedy would be for Microsoft to be broken up -- as AT&T was, decades earlier. Microsoft appealed and in June the appeals court overturned the break-up ruling.
This was widely reported in the media as "Microsoft wins court battle." But the truth is more complicated. The Appeals Justices agreed in part with Judge Jackson's finding that Microsoft had engaged in anti-competitive behavior and on one key point concluded that the company still stands guilty of using illegal practices to maintain its monopoly position. The court also ruled that Jackson's "findings of fact" and "conclusions of law" should stand. The case was referred back to the lower court -- but with a different judge. Microsoft then decided that a few tactical concessions were in order. First they announced that the controversial "smart tags" feature in their new Windows XP operating system would not ship. Then Microsoft announced that it would cease prohibiting computer manufacturers from putting logos for non-Microsoft products on the desktops of pre-installed Windows XP machines.
The subtext of this PR campaign was this: Microsoft may be the 800-pound gorilla of the computing business, but from now on it would be a kinder, gentler gorilla. The truth is more interesting. Microsoft has long realized that its PC monopoly is a declining asset in an Internet-centered world in which people access the network via a range of devices other than PCs.
The reason Gates stepped down as chief executive to lead Microsoft's software development was because he wanted to prepare the company to dominate this emerging net-centric world as comprehensively as it ruled the PC-centred one. Because the courts and the media are preoccupied with the latter, why not throw them some meaningless concessions to distract them while Gates & Co get on with the serious stuff?
If you want to know what they're really up to, take a look at their "passport" service. To the uninitiated, it may look like a common-sense convenience -- instead of having to remember dozens of passwords for various facilities in a networked world, why not have one place which securely keeps your personal details and makes them available automatically to other services for which sign up? What could be simpler?
To a more discriminating nose, however, the passport idea stinks. One expert describes it as a "blatant attempt to build the world's largest, richest consumer database, and then make fabulous profits mining it. It's a terrifying threat to everyone's personal privacy and it will make today's "cookies" seem positively tame by comparison. The scariest thing is that Microsoft is advertising passport as if it were a benefit to consumers -- and people seem to be falling for it"
Another says, "Microsoft wants to own your identity and rent it back to you for a few bucks per month."
Meanwhile Gates's plans for the technology were summed up at a recent press conference. "It's our goal," he said, "to have virtually everybody who uses the Internet to have one of these passport connections."
John Naughton is a columnist for The Observer in London. The opinions expressed are his own.
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