__/ [ [H]omer ] on Wednesday 30 May 2007 08:19 \__
> Verily I say unto thee, that Roy Schestowitz spake thusly:
>
>> The following good video covers price fixing and the nagative impact:
>>
>> http://boycottnovell.com/2007/04/23/antitrust-monopoly/
>
> .----
> | Rudolph Peritz (Professor, New York Law School): "John D.
> | Rockefeller's Standard Oil company was driving small competitors
> | out of business, imposing contracts on railroads, and not only
> | that, but Rockefeller got a piece of every shipping charge that was
> | paid to the railroads *by his competitors*."
> `----
>
> Sounds *very* familiar.
>
> .----
> | Mara Liasson (presenter): "Ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court
> | determined Standard Oil's tactics to be monopolistic and in
> | restraint of trade. Rockefeller's billion-dollar company was then
> | broken into 34 smaller entities, that restored competition to the
> | marketplace. Just imagine what it would be like today if there was
> | only one oil company, and every gas station had the same owner."
> |
> | ...
> |
> | "Seventy years later the anti-trust laws forced the break-up of
> | another powerful monopoly, the American Telephone & Telegraph
> | company. At the time, AT&T had a stranglehold on all aspects of the
> | telephone business, from long-distance service, to the telephones
> | themselves. With AT&T's breakup new competitors entered the market,
> | long-distance costs dropped dramatically, and new products
> | appeared. Many believe the arrival of technologies like cellphones
> | and high-speed modems was sped up because multiple
> | telecommunication companies were competing for customer dollars."
> `----
>
> Imagine the level of *true* innovation, exciting new products, fairer
> prices, and dramatic increase in consumer interest there would be if the
> USDOJ had actually made good on their original sanctions against
> Microsoft, rather than wimping out at the behest of Pearly's equally
> vile and corrupt pal Dubya.
>
> .----
> | Ken Auletta (Journalist & Author): "Every time I go out and
> | interview, as a journalist, the Bill Gates' and the Rupert Murdoch's
> | of this world; one of the things that encourages me is how
> | frightened they are. As powerful as they are, they are frightened.
> | And what are they frightened about? They're frightened of someone
> | they never heard of, who's out there inventing some new product
> | that will menace their domination."
> `----
>
> Their fear is self-evident, as demonstrated by them lashing out at the
> FOSS community, threatening it, attempting to control it with protection
> rackets, and deploying their Munchkins to forums, Blogs and newsgroups
> to spread disinformation and anti-FOSS propaganda.
>
> But what is it they fear? Is it poverty, starvation, homelessness, or
> other fundamental deprivation? No. They fear the loss of their excessive
> hoard of power and money, more than any one man, or even one hundred
> men, could spend in a lifetime, more than ten thousand men would need to
> live a life of luxury, more than a hundred thousand men would need to
> live comfortably for the rest of their lives. Put another way, if you
> sold Microsoft you could sustain the entire current population of
> Ethiopia for a lifetime.
>
> What kind of people can fight so viciously to preserve such greed, and
> still sleep at night?
You mentioned AT&T and it hit a nerve. Remind yourself which 2 companies have
urged the FTC to give Google a hard time. Remind yourself which company has
just acquired another company for double the amount that Google had shelled
out...
As you say, greed knows no bounds (says Microsoft, too). Sadly, government
regulators are driven by that very same greed. It would be sad if only a mob
could actually catalyse and bring change. I think it all goes back to
education. Children are brought up watching Hollywood films where everything
(and I mean *everything*) revolves around glamour and money.
Google is overhyped.
Web 2.0 is inexistent.
But you know what makes people desperate to believe and rely on that garbage?
Hope that corruption will end. Someone needs to step up and and take action.
Sadly, Neelie Kroes and her commission have been disappointingly ineffective
in a world facing boundless globalisation. Lobbyists and interest groups go
overseas as well.
--
~~ Best regards
Roy S. Schestowitz | "Double your drive space - delete Windows"
http://Schestowitz.com | GNU/Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
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http://iuron.com - next generation of search paradigms
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