IP: Antitrust Suit Born of Law, Not of Lobbying NYT

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

July 2, 2000

Antitrust Suit Born of Law, Not of Lobbying

By STEVE LOHR

It is no secret that the rivalry between the software leaders, Microsoft 
and Oracle, is bitter. Still, the acknowledgment last week by Oracle that 
it financed a series of escapades intended to embarrass Microsoft provided 
some lively summer entertainment -- especially the Keystone Kops caper in 
which private investigators offered office cleaners $1,200 for the contents 
of a pro-Microsoft trade group's wastebaskets.

Yet in the cross-fire of invective that ensued, the two foes found some 
common ground in what is known as public choice theory, whose practitioners 
use economic principles to analyze government decision-making, especially 
the influence of special-interest groups.

http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/sunday/070200biz-econ-column.html