GPL & commercial software, the critical distinction (fwd)

[Petro]

At 9:59 PM -0500 10/7/98, Jim Choate wrote:
>Forwarded message:
>
>> Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 21:52:17 -0400 (EDT)
>> From: Ryan Anderson <ryan at michonline.com>
>> Subject: RE: GPL & commercial software, the critical distinction (fwd)
>
>> > The Mafia. The handful of world-class coke dealers. Your local church.
>>
>> Umm...  both of those are around because the governemtn made the cost of
>> delivering both alcohol and drugs prohibitively high,
>
>That's inaccurate. The Mafia pre-dated the US by several hundred years if

	So what? There was probably a government wherever the started, and
they probably started out providing services that their local government
prohibited.

>not more (depends on how one wants to choose the bloodline). Most
>definitely they predated the bans on alcohol.
>
>As to the coke market, In S. America it has been around for quite a while as
>well. The chemical has been used medicinaly for hundreds of years until just
>recently.

	Which says nothing about whether it was/is a government sponsored/
protected monopoly.
--
"To sum up: The entire structure of antitrust statutes in this country is a
jumble of economic irrationality and ignorance. It is a product: (a) of a
gross misinterpretation of history, and (b) of rather naïve, and certainly
unrealistic, economic theories." Alan Greenspan, "Anti-trust"
http://www.ecosystems.net/mgering/antitrust.html

Petro::E-Commerce Adminstrator::Playboy Ent.
Inc.::petro at playboy.com::petro at bounty.org