Roy Schestowitz wrote:
____/ TheLetterK on Wednesday 19 September 2007 17:25 : \____
Roy Schestowitz wrote:
____/ dapunka on Wednesday 19 September 2007 13:11 : \____
Ramon F Herrera wrote:
"WASHINGTON (AFP) - An EU court ruling upholding
antitrust sanctions against Microsoft drew a harsh
response from the US government and interest groups,
which said it may stifle the burgeoning technology
sector."
IFAIK, the democratic party (Linux users in their web site) is not
against the EU anti-Microsoft decision.
The GOP (Windows users in their web site) and the current US
administration are against the EU anti-Microsoft decision.
A large number of Republicans, inc Bush's staff, are in Microsoft's
pocket (as are a lot of Democratic politicos - when it comes to a
fight between Mammon and ideals, Mammon nearly always triumphs).
The European court's anti-Microsoft ruling will no doubt be challenged
and battled by the US Govt. And I fear that the result will be a
severe dilution of that ruling's effects. The USA has far too much
influence over other jurisdictions.
What I'd really like is for Microsoft to be banned from dealing in the
European market. Unfortunately, that's almost definately never gonna
happen. Drat their deep pockets and highly-influential shills! I
hate those MSes to pieces!
Well, the Republican do damage to their image by turning a blind eye to
market abuse. Those short-term gains will end and can lead to recession when
countries like Holland drop Microsoft as a matter of principle, which they
do.
I don't care about governments turning a blind eye to market "abuse". I
care when the government is actively involved in the abuse.
In what way? I don't doubt it, but I wish to know how.
How the government abuses markets? They do it every time they involve
themselves in the market. Every time they grant a patent on a trivial
idea, or protect copyright on content produced by dead people. Every
time they hand money out to a company or industry to "bail them out",
every time they try to fix prices through regulation. These are abuses
of the market.
I don't consider Microsoft an abuser of the market, I consider them a
stain on it. But that doesn't mean I think the government should be
wielded against them. Effective change will have to come from the
customers, and I think it will.
I can think of some things to consider here:
* Back doors
* Media companies (DRM that is only compatible with American products)
* Forensics facilities
DRM is effective only because companies can use their "IP rights" to
legally protect their DRM scheme. If we allowed free reverse
engineering, it would not be a problem.
That's just software alone, but code is part of a bigger picture.
Does the government just turn a blind eye or is it actively involved (and it
so, at what level of capacity and how)?
The US government is actively involved in most cases of market abuse.
They usually are. Generally speaking, monopolies can only come about
when the government facilitates them. There are a few exceptions to
this, but it's still pretty rare.
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