Antitrust issues with technology

One issue that routinely comes up in technology is competition. The ownership of concepts that are incorporated into new and innovated products has generated a mountain of litigation. What role should the government play in regulating these innovations and compelling compatibility and interoperability with other products?

Arkansas is not among the states involved in the antitrust claim brought by the US DOJ and attorneys general of 19 states against Microsoft for the Windows desktop platform. That litigation sought to allow computer manufacturers to use software applications on Windows without code removal. This US Consent Decree followed. Platforms aren't the only technology susceptible. Media players, messenger software -- just about any application can create issues of ownership and thus issues of choice with consumers.

Legislating integration and interoperation of technology at the state level is limited mainly to things like document format legislation and can become a mechanism for product competition in the Legislature. Minnesota, Texas, California, Massachusetts and Oregon have all debated these issues. The closest we've come in Arkansas is the enactment of the Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act in 2007, although we didn't legislate the archival of electronic data. Established commercial players like Microsoft, Adobe, Corel, Novell, IBM, and Sun are actively thinking about archival and interop in their product offerings. It is incumbent upon lawmakers to retain a long range view as to how we'll maintain this electronic data for the future.