Microsoft Case Serves as a Timely Warning

* In the case of U.S. versus Microsoft, the government wants to send a clear message to businesses that monopolies will not be tolerated, especially in Internet commerce.

If the Time Warner-America Online deal is finally approved, the combined companies could provide streamlined Internet service to a majority of Americans. This is similar to the emergence of cable television: a low initial price for the service, with a lot of hoopla, and then when the customer base was sufficient, increase prices to the saturation point and then the real profits come to the fore.

Time Warner has shown recently that it is ready to use its power to force companies like ABC/Disney to play the game its way. When AOL is added into that picture, smaller Internet service providers are going to get squeezed out of the market.

So the government needs the Microsoft case as a precedent to preserve e-commerce and to send a message to the other titans that you need to tread carefully.

THOMAS C. GIBBONS

Palm Springs