While it never does a company good to defy the law, there are many work-arounds available that completely undermine laws. In the same way that a blatent monopoly like microsoft can get away from a legal case which was really open and shut, other companies could easily sidestep the worst of this law.

*Why can't a company bring a UNIX up to these standards? There's a lot of good crypto stuff around, it could be welded into a coherent product.
*Law only applies in America... Canada is really close. Ping times are comparable. Create a 'venture company' to start internet services in Canada and then you aren't responsible for what they use.
*Even big, stupid companies are getting wary of MS. In the seventies and eighties, companies moved away from super-service providers like digital and IBM for fear of being locked into a manufacturer. Same applies now

Most importantly, though, are the people caught in the middle of all this. Microsoft gets its money from hordes of people who give it to them. What if that stopped?

I don't think this will fail because citizens suddenly unite to prevent a gross abuse of freedom. I think this will fail because nobody will want to upgrade. I can see most companies moving their servers north of the border, and most users not upgrading because they are sick of paying money for something that doesn't work.

The sales figures for win2000 (the first decent MS product since solitaire) show that people are very wary of MS in general. With the first hint of controversy everybody will go back to win98, saying "It does everything I need it to".

Companies only have to hold out for about 6 months after this comes in, and then MS will suffer amazing losses. With no viable product anywhere in the industry, the government will be forced to delay it, and water it down until it doesn't really exist anymore.

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Jeremy
I didn't believe in evil until I dated it.