On alliances and enemies.

[cubic-dog]

On Wed, 7 Aug 2002, James A. Donald wrote:

>     --
> Hollywood and the government, would like the internet to be like
> television, a few big businesses steadily churning out content,
> and everyone else passively consuming it.
> 
> Microsoft really would not like that, since, despite all their
> faults, they are in the computer business.
> 
> lots of good stuff and analogies snipped


Why not? 

For the purpose of this argument, lets accept as fact this
Hollywood/gubbmint alliance. So, why wouldn't Bill & Co want
to play? As long as they get a software subscription license
fee from every "consumer" of the product, that can be
added to everytime a new ground-breaking, earth-shattering,
fancy super multimedia immersion technology "standard" is
introduced?

It *seems* to me that Microsoft wants out of
even the software license model they currently have
and want to just plug into the consumers "line of
credit" and withdraw as they see fit without having
to do much more than create easily obsolete-able 
software techniques that they can consistantly 
reinvent so that they can continue to siphon 
credit from their milkcows much in the same way
that the gubbmint collects taxes, only with much
better "ease of use."

I don't see Stalin/Hitler, I see;

Standard Oil/
Department of Transporation/
Interstate Commerce Commission)
General Motors/
Ford/
and so forth.