Verily I say unto thee, that Rick spake thusly:
> No, they haven't been prosecuted for criminal actions. They have been
> sued by the USDOJ for their civil illegal activity. I am not sure
> what you call it in Europe.
What do you call "illegal" in America?
You seem to think that just because an action is prompted by civil
litigation, that the cause cannot be criminal in nature.
Violation of the Sherman Act and European Competition law is a /crime/.
[quote]
The American term antitrust arose not because the US statutes had
anything to do with ordinary trust law, but because the large American
corporations used trusts to conceal the nature of their business
arrangements. Big trusts became synonymous with big monopolies, the
perceived threat to democracy and the free market these trusts
represented led to the Sherman and Clayton Acts. These laws, in part,
codified past American and English common law of restraints of trade.
Senator Hoar, an author of the Sherman Act said in a debate, "We have
affirmed the old doctrine of the common law in regard to all inter-state
and international commercial transactions and have clothed the United
States courts with authority to enforce that doctrine by injunction."
Evidence of the common law basis of the Sherman and Clayton acts is
found in the Standard Oil case,[29] where Chief Justice White explicitly
linked the Sherman Act with the common law and sixteenth century English
statutes on engrossing.[30] The Act's wording also reflects common law.
The first two sections read as follows,
"Section 1. Every contract, combination in the form of trust or
otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the
several States, or with foreign nations, is declared to be illegal.
Every person who shall make any contract or engage in any combination or
conspiracy hereby declared to be illegal shall be deemed guilty of a
felony, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by fine....
Section 2. Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to
monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to
monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States,
or with foreign nations, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and, on
conviction thereof, shall be punished by fine...."
[/quote]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competition_law#United_States_antitrust
[quote]
Common law legal systems as opposed to civil law legal systems
This connotation differentiates "common law" jurisdictions and legal
systems from "civil law" or "code" jurisdictions.[7] Common law systems
place great weight on court decisions, which are considered "law" with
the same force of law as statutes. By contrast, in civil law
jurisdictions (the legal tradition that prevails in, or is combined with
common law in, almost all non-Islamic, non-common law countries),
judicial precedent is given relatively less weight (which means that a
judge deciding a given case has more freedom to interpret the text of a
statute independently, and less predictably), and scholarly literature
is given relatively more. For example, the Napoleonic code expressly
forbade French judges from pronouncing the law.[8][9] As a rough rule of
thumb, common law systems trace their history to England, while civil
law systems trace their history to Roman law.
[/quote]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_law#2._Common_law_legal_systems_as_opposed_to_civil_law_legal_systems
These different legal systems do not exist to differentiate between
crimes and non-crimes, they exist as different /mechanisms/ for dealing
with crimes. Ultimately an actual /crime/ must be committed for action
to be considered by /any/ of these legal systems.
To suggest that Microsoft only committed a civil violation, so they're
not really criminals, is essentially a lie. The /action/ may have been
"civil", but the cause was nonetheless a felony /crime/.
They broke the law. They're criminals (felons, no less). QED.
--
K.
http://slated.org
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| "Seek not the favour of the multitude; it is seldom got by honest
| and lawful means. But seek the testimony of few; and number not
| voices, but weigh them." ~ Immanuel Kant
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