On Jun 25, 11:14 pm, Snit <use...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Rex Ballard stated in post
> 820b7f89-8eff-4136-911c-edf784875...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx on 6/25/09
> 7:59 PM:
> > On Jun 25, 3:43 pm, Snit <use...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >> Rick stated in post 97SdnVjyhNwuUt7XnZ2dnUVZ_s6dn...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on
> >> 6/25/09 12:27 PM:
> >>> On Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:47:32 -0400, Hans Lister wrote:
> >>>> On Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:42:52 -0500, Rick wrote:
> >>>> When you can't give away something that is free, you have a serious
> >>>> problem on your hands.
>
> >>> Your major problem is your lack of honesty.
>
> >> How does a monopoly out-compete *free*?
OK, I'll bottom line it for you.
To out-compete "free", you spend 30 years using the same tactics drug
users use to get customers addicted to your products, with no
substitutes available because you "kill off" all the competitors. In
Microsoft's case, they simply drove competitors and uncooperative
partners into bankruptcy.
You use fraud, extortion, blackmail, sabotage, and obstruction of
justice, but hire a really good team of lawyers to help you stay as
close to the fringes of the law as possible. When you get caught, and
you see that the judge or jury is likely to rule against you, you have
your team of lawyers draw up deceptive settlements which are linked to
sealed court records and blanket immunity for all executives involved,
and pay the plaintiff's lawyers in cash, and pay the plaintiffs with
coupons that help protect and extend your monopoly power.
> So you have no proof?
Microsoft has crossed the line into criminal acts several times, and
gotten caught. They pay settlements - to the tune of about $2
billion/year. But they may $80 billion/year in revenue and $16
billion/year in profits. For Microsoft crime does pay.
Many corporate executives have subscribed to "The Bill Gates School of
Business", using similar tactics in home mortgages, investments,
mortgage backed securities. Companies like Enron and WorldCom, tried
these tactics and got caught by a regulator wasn't so easily
blackmailed (Harvey Pitt). Notice that Bush replaced him. Other hard-
cases like Elliott Spitzer not only had to be blackmailed, but the
blackmailers had to publish their little "bombs", through anonymous
leaks of supposedly classified Top Secret homeland security wire-taps.
When Bush offered the velvet glove settlement to Microsoft, I said,
"If Microsoft is above the law, then there is now law". That was in
2001. 8 years later, we are seeing that indeed, the lawless had
learned to make criminal acts profitable. We saw Bernie Madoff
confess to a crime most people never suspected. We saw mortgage fraud
on a massive scale, and we saw "junk" grade mortgage backed securities
getting "AAA" ratings from the various credit agencies. When the
"house of cards" collapsed, it almost threw the country into another
"Great Depression" or worse, with millions of people losing good jobs
they had held for decades.
In the 1930s, criminals like John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Al
Capone, and Bonnie and Clyde became folk heroes, capturing the hearts
and imaginations of people who had become the victims of the greed and
corruption of Wall Street, Banks, and lack of proper oversight and
risk management.
We may see a new breed of criminal capturing the hearts and minds of
modern victims. The cyber-criminal, the uber-hacker, could become the
next folk heroes. Just this morning, on CNBC, I saw Kevin Mitnick
proudly being touted as the "Third greatest hacker of all time".
Which makes me wonder who the othetr two were.
So how you compete against free, or even very cheap, is to use fraud,
extortion, blackmail, sabotage, and obstruction of justice, staying
right at the fringes of the law, so that you can make the crimes
profitable.
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