Free Republic

<p>It was only a couple of years ago that Larry Ellison, the charismatic CEO of Oracle Corp., was urging the dogs of antitrust to chase down Bill Gates and Microsoft. How things have changed. Somewhere along the way, the pups got loose and turned on him. Now Oracle itself may wind up feeling the antitrust bite.</p>

Gays in the Military (1993) "Don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding homosexuals reaffirmed and codified in military regulation. This revolutionary decision ushers in an era of reduced tensions in America regarding acceptance of homosexuals into society. Further, this renewed focus on the privacy of homosexuals' own affairs satisfies the needs of this group, and brings calm to a heated debate. World Trade Center Bombing (1993) Violence and terror strikes New York City as a horrific explosion detonates in the garage beneath the World Trade Center. A swift apprehension and just prosecution of the direct perpetrators of the act ensures that...

LARRY ELLISON IS one of the richest men in the United States. But as an investor, I'm not jealous of the founder of Oracle (ORCL). Let me tell you why. I happen to live quite near him in a town in Silicon Valley, and almost every day I drive by the site of the astonishing new home he has spent the last several years building. On what is perhaps the most expensive residential acreage not just in California but in the world, he has built a 45-acre Japanese palace and installed himself as shogun. You can't drive by it without...

Bill Gates must be laughing his head off. Following a months-long investigation, the U.S. Justice Department on Thursday said that it would seek to block Oracle's hostile bid to acquire PeopleSoft, arguing that it would result in higher prices for technology, fewer choices and less innovation. Setting aside the question of whether Uncle Sam has a case or not, Gates surely must be savoring the moment as Larry Ellison, one of the handmaidens to the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, is finally being hoisted on his own petard. Ellison was one of the most outspoken figures in Silicon Valley...

<p>Whatever the merits of the legal case California Attorney General Bill Lockyer is pursuing against the grocery stores involved in an ongoing labor dispute, his behavior has suggested that he is a partisan actor rather than a fair-minded advocate of justice. That's not good for the appearance of impartiality that is the foundation of California's legal system.</p>

GATA's work to expose the gold price suppression scheme THE GOLD ANTI-TRUST ACTION COMMITTEE INC. -- A SUMMARY, JANUARY 27, 2002 -- In 1998, as he began www.LeMetropoleCafe.com , his Internet site of financial commentary, Bill Murphy noticed that the gold market wasn't trading as normal markets do. Eventually he sensed collusion among market participants to suppress the gold price and wrote about it repeatedly. Following Murphy's commentary with great interest, a newspaper editor in Connecticut, Chris Powell, noted that collusion to control prices is against U.S. anti-trust law and suggested that gold partisans and gold market participants mobilize against...

RealNetworks Sues Microsoft Over Antitrust By RACHEL KONRAD, AP Business Writer SAN JOSE, Calif. - RealNetworks Inc. filed an antitrust suit against Microsoft Corp. on Thursday, alleging that its competitor has illegally monopolized the growing field of digital media by requiring every Windows user to take Microsoft's media player, whether they want it or not. RealNetworks alleged that the software giant has violated state and federal antitrust laws, exploiting its monopoly to restrict competition. The Seattle-based digital media company said Microsoft "pursued a broad course of predatory conduct over a period of years by abusing its monopoly power, resulting in...

<p>This year marks the 70th anniversary of the launching of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, so it's a good time to debate his policies, which have had an immense influence and which remain controversial.</p> <p>1. Why did FDR triple federal taxes during the Great Depression? Federal tax revenues more than tripled, from $1.6 billion in 1933 to $5.3 billion in 1940. Excise taxes, personal income taxes, inheritance taxes, corporate income taxes, holding company taxes and "excess profits" taxes all went up. FDR introduced an undistributed profits tax. Consumers had less money to spend, and employers had less money for growth and jobs.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A key element of the antitrust settlement Microsoft Corp. negotiated with the Bush administration isn't working as effectively as hoped, the government and trial judge acknowledged Friday. The criticism comes just weeks before a U.S. appeals court considers tougher sanctions against the world's largest software company. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly urged government lawyers during a court hearing to investigate over the coming months why only nine companies so far have paid Microsoft to license its Windows technology for their own software products. [snip] The licensing requirement was considered central since it would prevent Microsoft from locking...

SAN FRANCISCO and LOS ANGELES, July 24 /PRNewswire/ -- A group of Internet service providers have filed a lawsuit against SBC Communications in federal court under the Sherman Antitrust Act and California Unfair Business Practices statutes. This is the first time an antitrust case has been brought by independent ISPs against the giant Texas-based phone company. According to the suit, SBC is using its "last mile" monopoly against its broadband competitors to put them in an illegal "price squeeze." The company, which monopolizes in excess of 80% of the DSL market, will be called upon to defend its policy...

On July 9, 1958, hearings were held in Washington by the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly of the Committee of the Judiciary of the United States Senate. The Subcommittee was considering H.R. 10378 and S. 4070 to limit anti-trust laws so as to exempt professional baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. Before them as an expert witness came Casey Stengel, whose verbal cuneiform has added the word "Stengelese" to our language. They say there was nothing like it, in all the history of Congressional hearings. TESTIMONY Senator Kefauver: Mr. Stengel, you are the manager of the New York Yankees. Will you...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. MANILA: When champion Lleyton Hewitt or opponent Ivo Karlovic slams the first tennis ball at Wimbledon on Monday no-one will be watching more closely than Julius Manalo thousands of kilometres away in the Philippines. Manalo, who manages Dunlop Slazenger's Philippine plant, which made the balls, knows that the workmanship of he and his staff will be on the line -- or, he hopes, just inside it. And the possibility that some traditionalists in the crowd might choke on their strawberries knowing balls for the world's most prestigious tennis tournament were produced...

Connecticut's attorney general got the market's attention when he announced his intention to file an antitrust suit against Oracle (ORCL) on Wednesday. But he'd better enjoy it while he can. Making the case stick won't be easy. "It sounds as though Connecticut's criticism is that, as a customer, the successor to his supplier is not as desirable as the one he has now. That's a fair concern for a customer to raise, but it's not an antitrust issue. It's a matter of contract rights," said Emmett Stanton, an antitrust specialist and partner in the Silicon Valley law firm of Fenwick...

NEW YORK (AFP) - The US state of West Virginia has dropped its appeal against an antitrust settlement between the US government and software giant Microsoft, the company said in a statement. The decision leaves only the state of Massachusetts pursuing a case against the computer software giant. "We are pleased to resolve our legal differences with the State of West Virginia," Microsoft said. "Today's announcement represents another step in Microsoft's efforts to resolve the legal issues facing us so that we can focus on innovation and customer needs." In November, a federal judge approved a settlement between Microsoft and...

It's really quite simple. If "techie" companies like Linux really want to bring down Microsoft's monopoly, they need to quit putting most of their energy into making "cool" software and focus on the four factors necessary to compete at Microsoft's level.Lawsuits by the government and competitors against Microsoft have failed to break down Microsoft’s monopoly within the software industry. This has just reinforced the free market argument that the real way to beat Microsoft is through competition. Unfortunately, most of Microsoft’s most promising competitors have failed to do the four things necessary to beat Microsoft – sell easier to use...

New PAC gave to 65 congressional candidates Associated Press WASHINGTON -- Major League Baseball's political action committee contributed $108,000 to 65 congressional candidates last year, much of it to incumbents who sit on committees of strategic interest to the sport. Federal Election Commission reports show that the PAC gave to 40 House candidates and 25 Senate candidates, about 60 percent to Democrats and 40 percent to Republicans. Baseball also contributed $170,000 in unregulated "soft money'' to the national parties in the last election, $95,000 to the Democrats, $75,000 to the GOP. Baseball, the only sport with a PAC, formed...

Microsoft logo scheme means Office Depot won't sell non-compliant XP products Is this the back passageway to DRM? A SCHEME BEING IMPLEMENTED by Office Depot ? almost certainly at Microsoft's behest ? means that companies that fail to join a logo scheme will find their XP products won't appear on store shelves unless they've been certified by Redmond. Only products that conform to Microsoft's Designed for Windows XP rules and carry its logo will be sold in Office Depot after May this year, the INQUIRER has discovered. (See memo at the foot of this article). These rules apply to both...

<p>Overpaid players. Greedy owners. Poverty stricken teams without hope. Dumb marketing. Aging fans. Publically subsidized stadiums. Shrinking Little League participation.</p> <p>Baseball is not the national pastime it used to be. But Andrew Zimbalist, the noted sports economist and author of "May the Best Team Win," says America's signature game is not dead yet.</p>

Wed Mar 12, 3:51 PM ET PORTLAND, Maine - Music buyers who applied for a share of a price-fixing settlement involving major U.S. record distributors and retailers will receive about $12.60 apiece if a judge signs off on the deal. Roughly 3.5 million U.S. residents who purchased music between 1995 and 2000 registered for claims by last Wednesday's deadline, said Maine Assistant Attorney General John Brautigam. The deadline was pushed back two days because a last-minute barrage of online applications caused the settlement's Web site to crash. More than 95 percent of claims were filed online. Claimants will split $44...

In a quiet end to a highly contested investigation, the Justice Department signed a consent decree on Saturday with New Times Media and Village Voice Media, two newsweekly chains that it had accused of dividing markets when they closed competing papers in Cleveland and Los Angeles last October, according to representatives of both companies. The Justice Department is expected to file a complaint and a competitive impact statement today, along with the consent decree, they said. There is no admission of guilt in the consent decree, but each company is required to aid the opening of new weekly papers in...