Today was day 3 of the Microsoft hearing in Luxembourg and, as I noted in my last post, the focus switched to MS’s intellectual property and whether or not the company should be forced to share it with rivals. When most people are presented with the idea of government taking one company’s property and giving it to another, they are horrified. But today’s audience isn’t most people. Today’s crowd was journalists, interveners, and the two sides. As a result, everyone was focused on the details.
One thing that occurred to me was how property still matters even though it is digital and also how the digital nature of it changes some rules of the game. For instance, there was a time when one company could exclude another by putting its product in a physical spot like a store. If company A’s stuff was there, company B couldn’t use that space. Now, however, if Microsoft puts property like its media player on a computer, that doesn’t exclude other competitors. I can still download Real or QuickTime even if I am running Widows Media. That is a definite upside of the digital revolution.
A second note I wanted to make is more frivolous. At lunch today, a colleague of mine noticed that the lead EC attorney went to the cafeteria and piled a huge number of sandwiches on a tray and took them off to a meeting room. According to my friend, this is proof that the EC can’t even organize food for its lead people. Maybe. Maybe the guy is just a freak and fired his assistant. I don’t know. I do know, however, that the main lunch area is only open at lunchtime and the gift store, which sells Internet cards (the ONLY way to get on the Internet if you don’t have a Luxemburg sms phone), closes at 3pm even though court goes until 6pm. If that’s how European bureaucrats think consumers like things to work, I am very glad I am not a European consumer.