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1 Erasmus L. & Econ. Rev. 1 (2004)

handle is hein.journals/erascomr1 and id is 1 raw text is: Erasmus Law and Economics Review 1 (February 2004): 1-22. CATCH ME IF YOU CAN! THE MICROSOFT SAGA AND THE SORROWS OF OLD ANTITRUST Andrea Renda* LE Lab, Luiss Guido Carli, Rome, Italy Abstract At the intersection between intellectual property protection and antitrust, the Microsoft case has now become a synecdoche, a part for the whole: the browser war has indeed evolved as a marginal skirmish that should be interpreted in the light of a more general IPR war. The paper describes the peculiar aspects and the questions that remain unsolved in the Microsoft case and points at the hidden places of digital capitalism, in search of an approach that reconciles the outstanding potential of e2e architecture with the need to ensure that content producers are able to control the diffusion of contents circulating on the Net. Keywords: Microsoft case, Antitrust, Digital capitalism, Software market. JEL classification: K21, L49. While the opposed parties get prepared for the next episodes of a saga that lasted so far more than a decade, the US trustbusters seem to hardly resist the temptation to quickly leave the Microsoft case behind by botching up an ephemeral solution, rather than insisting in the quest of a satisfactory compromise between the interests at stake. And even after District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, the last in charge of solving the controversy, concluded that the consent decree signed by Microsoft, the US Department of Justice and nine of the eighteen plaintiff States is in the public interest, the Microsoft case cannot be assumed to have finally breathed its last.' There are Senior Research Fellow, LE Lab, Luiss Guido Carli, Rome. Email comments at andrea.renda@law-economics.net. The entry of the Consent Decree was conditioned to an amendment of Section VII of the agreement. Microsoft then filed a Third Revised Proposed Final Judgment that was @ 2004 Andrea Renda. Subject to ELER Public License 1.0. URL: http://www.eler.org