<nettime> defense

[Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>]

     [from <http://www.moral-defense.org/media/jan1098.html>.
      new genre: old press releases. --tb]

           Press Release
           Release Date: 10 Jan 98

           Activists form committee to defend
           Microsoft from government intervention
           in computer industry 

           A group of pro-free-market activists are forming the
Committee for the Moral Defense of Microsoft, an ad-hoc group
dedicated to providing a principled defense of Microsoft against
the current attempts at government intrusion into the computer
industry. 

           This organization grew from a World Wide Web site
created by Bahamas-based programmer Mark Da Cunha to coordinate
pro-Microsoft activism. That site, http://www.moral-defense.org,
gathers together a group of essays, outside links, and other
resources defending Microsoft in its current court case and
attacking the antitrust laws under which Microsoft is being
prosecuted. 

           In early December, Mr. Da Cunha added to his site a
"Petition to Stop the Persecution of Microsoft," co-written by
Robert W. Tracinski, a Virginia-based writer and editor. The
petition, which has already gathered over 2,000 signatures [over
8000 as of 18 May 1998], states in part: 

           "Under the guise of 'protecting the public,' these
[antitrust] laws have allowed envious competitors and power-
hungry officials to attack successful businessmen for the crime of
being successful. It has led to the ugly spectacle of the creative
geniuses of the business worldqthe men who have made this country
greatqbeing branded as oppressive tyrants, whose hard-won business
empires must be broken to pieces and subjected to the control of
government regulators. 

           "The Justice Department's current suit against
Microsoft...if successful, will...  deprive Mr. Gates of his right
to control his own company, and...deprive the company of its
ownership and control of its own products.

           "The Justice Department's case--and indeed the entire
edifice of antitrust law--is based on the bizarrely inverted
notion that the productive actions of individuals in the free
market can somehow constitute 'force,' while the coercive actions
of government regulators can somehow secure 'freedom.' ...


           "As concerned citizens, we ask that the Justice
Department's case against Microsoft be dismissed. We call for a
national debate over the arbitrary and unjust provisions of the
antitrust laws and for an end to the practice of persecuting
businessmen for their success." 

           Da Cunha and Tracinski decided to take this campaign
one step further. Mr.  Tracinski is establishing the Committee for
the Moral Defense of Microsoft as a Virginia non-profit
corporation. The Committee will raise money to maintain the
pro-Microsoft Web site, to publicize the Petition in major
newspapers, and to publish pamphlets and other materials to
educate the public and the press about the Microsoft case and
about the injustice of the antitrust laws. 

           The mailing address for the Committee is PO Box 6525,
Charlottesville, VA, 22906. For more information, contact Robert
W. Tracinski, by phone at 540-967-5898, by fax at 540-967-5857,
and by e-mail at Tracinski@aol.com.  
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