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- From: sjb5@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (STACY JOHN BEHRENS)
- Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy
- Subject: Re: ftc and ms
- Message-ID: <1992Dec23.020100.19067@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu>
- Date: 23 Dec 92 02:01:00 GMT
- Organization: Lehigh University
- Lines: 73
-
- In article <1992Dec22.101424.22030@noose.ecn.purdue.edu>, helz@ecn.purdue.edu (R
- andall A Helzerman) writes:
- >In article <1h4vq1INN2mj@tamsun.tamu.edu>, bdubbs@cs.tamu.edu (Bruce Dubbs) wri
- tes:
-
- (stuff deleted)
- >|> prices will go up. Can it happen? I think so. Will it happen? Without
- >|> organizations like the FTC, I think it might.
- >
- >Ok, you tell me then why hasn't IBM just _dominated_ the PC clone market?
- >
- Because up to this point, when it came to PC's, IBM has been synonomous with
- overpriced, and stupid sales tactics. IBM shot themselves in the foot so many
- times we have all lost count. But until recently they didn't care, because
- they really were concerned with their mainframe business. You go with what
- makes you money.
-
-
- >|> I believe that the strength of the country is the ability for small companie
- s
- >|> to grow into large companies. Microsoft is an excellent example.
- >
- >How many people are going to try to start a company and bust their gussets tryi
- ng
- >to build it into a big one if they know that if they succeed the goverment
- >will just bust them up as a reward?
-
- While I admire the clever emotional appeals here, I find little substance
- behind them. MS has the stated goal of becomming a monopoly in the software
- industry. No other company I know of has set out from the start to do this,
- not even IBM. This does not appeal to me nor a great many other people who
- are in some way or another a part of this industry. I have no problem with
- competition, nor do I have a problem with companies having enormous success.
- Quite the opposite in fact, I love seeing a company make it to the big time.
- That is something to admire. However, I do not like seeing a company setting
- out from the start to become a monopoly, especially one I am so involved with.
- The government is not in the business of breaking up successful companies. If
- that were the case, the Big Three auto makers would have been gone
- ages ago. (remember Tucker automobiles?) The government, especially the
- current out-going administration, loves big business. They are not trying to
- stomp on a successful company's toes so that they cannot compete with foriegn
- interests. They are concerned with making sure that companies don't stomp too
- hard on other *American* companies toes.
-
- >
- >Property rights are fundimental. Would you buy a fancy car if you lived in
- >a neighborhood where it would just be stolen? Well the U.S. economy today
- >is a place where you can get the FTC to steal trade secrets for you if you
- >lobby it hard enough.
- >
-
- "Trade secrets" and property rights have absolutely nothing to do with each
- other in this case. No one is disputing MS's right to their products.
- (rights to other's sure, but not their own) The only "trade secrets" that MS
- is accused of hidding are in taking advantage of hidden calls in the OS.
- Things that should be documented if they are indeed there and if MS is indeed
- using them. These don't exactly qualify as "trade secrets" though. Everyone
- knows that such calls exist, though not always what they are. The FTC is only
- concerned with the possibility that MS might gain some advantage from these by
- the fact that they produce both the OS and a good many apps as well. If there
- is no evidence to support their doing this, I am fairly certain that nothing
- will come of it. If there is, then MS most likely deserves what's coming to
- them.
-
-
- --
- Stacy John Behrens
- *===)-------------
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- The only justification for our concepts and systems of concepts is that they
- serve to represent the complex of our experiences; beyond this they have not
- legitimacy. [Albert Einstein]
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