Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In 1998, the antitrust trial between the American Department of Justice and the Microsoft Corporation finally began after years of preparation. Microsoft was charged with abusing its near-total monopoly of the global software-market by employing a number of strong-arm tactics in its business dealings. Former allies, longstanding opponents, and many consumer and open-source software advocates lined up to file evidence, and other lawsuits, against Microsoft. However, by 2002, Microsoft's market dominance and share-price had been barely dented. This paper critically analyses this trial with respect to how it illustrates an intense power struggle for control of the internet; both within the corporate ICT sector and at the grassroots level of open-source software advocates. A struggle that is at once material and on the level of ideas and visions of the future. It places the various vested interests at stake in the context of three key developments in the governance of Information and Communication Technologies; the deregulation, liberalization, and privatization of telecommunications, the huge popularity of the internet for ordinary users, and developments in user-friendly computer technologies from non-commercial as well as commercial initiatives. The political economic and socio-technological elements of this power struggle are drawn together by using a Science-Fiction metaphor; the struggles between the crew of the Starship Enterprise and the Borg in the Star Trek television series. The Borg are an aggressive, efficient and merciless species with a highly sophisticated hi-tech society that seeks to take over and assimilate all others. They are both feared and admired for they are very good at what they do. Which interests gain the upper ahead and how they manage to frame the public debate on ICTs directly impact upon the look and accessibility of the Internet.