Comment by adventured | Hacker News Reader

Comment by adventured | Hacker News Reader

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It wouldn't. The US Government is extraordinarily dangerous and powerful. In the case of Microsoft taking such action:

1) The Feds have the guns. That specifically includes the general threat of guns-out federal agents storming the Microsoft campus for trumped up reasons to make a raw show of power. Microsoft's stock would plunge.

2) They have the IRS, Homeland Security, DOJ, FCC, FTC, SEC, and every other agency they could possibly need to break Microsoft's leadership and its board of directors. It would be done within a month and would be tragically easy.

Just the smallest potential of this type of scenario would have MSFT shareholders shitting their collective pants.

The US Government directly lords over all interstate commerce, in dozens of ways. They could, within the span of a few days, rule that Microsoft was impeding interstate commerce, posing a danger to national security, and they could order federal agents to take control of Microsoft; that wouldn't occur, it would merely be hinted at, at which point most of the board would immediately resign as would the CEO; the US Government would then watch as a new temporary board and CEO is installed. The US Government is able to force ports open - if need be - on the same basis they would use to force Microsoft 'open.' They could do it with either a soft touch, or be as forceful as necessary.

Also, you can argue that Google has been punished for daring to stand up to the US government (for example wanting to warn wikileaks about surveillance of its employees). Perhaps it's coincidence, but the Obama administration recently sided with Oracle in its litigation against Google. That is the sort of thing you can expect when going against the US government. Also, you give up help when it comes to things like antitrust lawsuits.

It wouldn't ever come to this, but even theoretically, you haven't thought through what would really transpire.

1) The Feds do have guns, but Microsoft has an extraordinary amount of goodwill, and media connections, and political connections, the foremost being the POTUS. He would not dare piss off one of the most powerful corporations in the world and risk the ensuing media malestrom that would have heads rolling from his office on down. They say our goverment has 3 branches, but it really has 4, the 4th being the intensely powerful news and internet media, which microsoft's tentacles even today spread very deep, and from which all politicians draw their votes. If it came to this, the president would face increasing scrutiny and actions of congress to block whatever he wanted to do (especially a republican congress) in order to save their own ass.

2) All these other agencies are enforcement angencies and fall under the jurisdiction of the POTUS. They would not act quickly (and would have to follow legal procedure, it's not as if these orgs just jump when the president says "sick em boy").

Men aren't men anymore. If I owned Microsoft I would dissolve it and blow its ashes to the four winds quicker than the Feds could wonder whether their holsters are fastened. After all it's my company and I'm still free to pulverize my own company in this country if I so choose, right?

I would not choose to continue making money and pleasing shareholders if it meant abetting the government in what they're demonstrating they're intent on pursuing.

It would be the end of Microsoft within 5 minutes. I'd be out of the country along with the Men (and Women of principles) that helped me pulverize it within 5 minutes.

There's always a way to do it. They could do it and put the government in its place. But no one thinks they are man enough to do it, and so it doesn't get done.

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