Microsoft

* Re “A Major Bug for Microsoft,” editorial, Nov. 8: As expected, your wrong-headed newspaper approves of the federal judge’s unfortunate ruling respecting Microsoft. The government’s unjustified action against a company that has done much good and no real wrong fits into the total array of piratical legal procedures including tort suits against Dow-Corning, Dow Chemical, tobacco companies, gun manufacturers, key manufacturers and paint companies, to name some of the more familiar examples, all fitting into a pattern. All of these actions reduce to a form of extortion-based piracy that is enriching greedy trial lawyers while penalizing legitimate productive interests.

Requiring Microsoft to share its source code would be equivalent to requiring that your newspaper and the broadcast media make available to others all information gathered by reporters, including outtakes and other information normally kept private, so that they could publish news slanted to their respective agendas.

SIDNEY HATCHL

Santa Ana