Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2020
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108610018
Abstract
One school of thought takes much of law and the legal system as essentially irrelevant to the process of technological evolution. This view takes as axiomatic that the rate technological change is always accelerating, that any firm or institution dependent on a given technology is therefore doomed to a rapid obsolescence. Law, at best, risks interfering with a natural progression toward a better technological future, hindering “the march of civilization.”
This paper discusses the historical role of antitrust investigation in changing the course of technological development by focusing on the example of the IBM litigation (1969 - 1984). While widely derided and seen as a failure, this essay challenges the conventional wisdom and suggests, with the benefit of decades of hindsight, that the IBM lawsuit and trial, despite never reaching a verdict, actually catalyzed numerous transformational developments key to the growth and innovation of the computing industries.
Disciplines
Antitrust and Trade Regulation | Law
Recommended Citation
Tim Wu,
Tech Dominance and the Policeman at the Elbow,
After the Digital Tornado: Networks, Algorithms, Humanity, Kevin Werbach (Ed.), Cambridge University Press
(2020).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/2289
Comments
This material has been published in "After the Digital Tornado: Networks, Algorithms, Humanity", edited by Kevin Werbach. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution or re-use.