At 5:25 PM -0500 9/30/98, Matthew James Gering wrote:
Petro wrote:
Had Microsoft, for example, been required to publish their API's by the market we wouldn't be spending all this effort ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
You state free-market and then you are *requiring* someone to do something? How do you resolve that contradiction? Require = Force != Free[dom]
Required as in purchasers large and small saying "You don't include your source code, we won't buy it".
*Require* per say is a bad term for the use of economic power. But the market didn't "require" Microsoft to do so (see Microsoft's financial statements), so why should the government step in and force something that is contrary to the market?
I never said they should, however in this case I will make the arguement that the Feds DID have something to do with creating the Jaggernaut called M$, and that they could also fix Billys little redmond wagon without a court case shoud they wish. Again, for those on the list who can't read clearly, I DON'T THINK THE DOJ SUIT IS PROPER, I am against it. Of course that is true of most government "actions".
The rest of Jim's sentence read "we wouldn't be spending all this effort and money on the current [Department of Justice] proceedings."
Which tells me that require means certain segments of the market telling Microsoft you will do this or we will fuck you over with the borrowcrats we own, which is exactly what has happened. The elements lacked sufficient economic power to sway Microsoft, and they lacked sufficient political power until they ganged up together. A loose coalition to gain via use of DOJ antitrust force what they good not gain in a free market. That is political power, not economic. What is rather ironic is that the same Antitrust laws they are trying to bash Microsoft with are what prevented them from forming an economic (instead of under-the-table political) coalition that could have made Microsoft change its practices without resorting to non-free-market forces.
Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't almost all Federally owned desktop computers PCs? Aren't there certain departments/divisions in the governement that only accept electronic files if they are in "word" format? (i.e. the DoD, but I don't have a site for that, so I could be mistaken). I know that I've never seen a Military Computer (desktop kind) that wasn't a Wintel/Dos machjne (talking general purpose computer here, not a targeting machine etc.) Sell a couple hundered thousand units to the Feds, and that is a considerable dent in the "level playing field" of the free market. -- petro@playboy.com----for work related issues. I don't speak for Playboy. petro@bounty.org-----for everthing else. They wouldn't like that. They REALLY Economic speech IS political speech. wouldn't like that.