The press should also make copies of all pronouncements of consumer benefit by the Justice Department and by competitors of Microsoft.
The reason for the bookmarks of prices and copies of pronouncements of consumer benefit is that they will come back to haunt you within the next twelve months if Microsoft is damaged by the actions resulting from being delcared a monopoly.
No one would ever think of letting an untrained and inexperienced layman decide the fate a of patient in need of a medical procedure, however we allow politicians, lawyers, and judges to decide the fate of our computing technology world-wide under the banner of monolpoly protection for consumers. I have only three things to say...
Someone is to have once said: Let those without sin cast the first stone. I'm not a fan of quoting scripture, but in this case, it makes perfect sense. The major complainers of Microsoft's monopolists practices are they themselves practioners of such practices and would in a heartbeat increase the prices consumers pay for products and support by altering their products so as to become sole providers.
Much like Microsoft's Internet Explorer, companies regularly give away products and services to create a marketplace. No company is better known for this than America Online and their impractical free hours which is solely designed to lock you in as their customer. Why aren't they considered a monopoly?
Much like Microsoft modifies their applications and operating systems to better work amongst themselves than with the products of competing companies, computer maker Sun Microsystems regularly changes the technology in their products to insure that you can only get accessories or replacement parts from them and nowhere else or at least you will be convinced that to be the case. Why aren't they considered a monopoly?
The answer is that your average consumer doesn't recognize the actions of AOL or Sun as they have no understanding or experience with with the monopolist practices of these companies. Microsoft, on the other hand, is a household word and a much bigger target for bashing by the press, politicians, lawyers, and government.
Politicians, lawyers, and the government think they are just doing their jobs. I also imagine that they think that their actions will benefit consumers and that their actions could in no way hurt consumers, damage Microsoft beyond recovery, or worse yet damage the economy of the government or the world. They know not what they do, and I for one can not forgive them for their lack of awarenes, their lack of intellegence, and their ineptitude in this matter.
We have got to start thinking of the concept of a monopoly in new terms. The original thinkings of monopolies were companies with identical products which used their marketplace dominance to increase their market share to the exclusion of other providers. The assumption was that if the monopoly were broken up, consumers could easily switch to buying identical products from alternate sources. In the case or computer software technology this is absolutely and positively not the case.
If you consider the products that Microsoft produces to be identical and readily replaceable by the products offered by the so-called competitors of Microsoft, you have far more to learn than your remaining natural lifetime can acommodate and you should allow those more aware to make such decisions for you.
If, by virture of the actions resulting from the monopoly decision, Microsoft as a company is damaged to the point where one can no longer purchase or afford their Windows operating systems or their Office applications, the cost of conversion to so-called competing products will be more than the majority of small to medium sized business can readily afford without dramatic increases in the prices that consumers pay for their non-computer related goods. Otherwise law abiding companies may resort to software piracy of Windows and Office existing copies of software products to curtail the significant costs of conversion to so-called competing products.
Is this an event which we will not succeed in passing through? Of course not, but we need to remember the costs and claims of the victors to see where we were and where we wound up as a result of their technologically blind actions to protect what they say are our interests. Someone else once said that those who do not study and learn from history are doomed to repeat history. We should record all that is taking place and learn from their results so as not to repeat them, ever.
Monroe Wyatt Pattillo, Jr. (MWP)
monroe.pattillo@monroepattillo.com
Site installed: 09 Jan 97 by MWP
Site updated: Sunday, 12-Jun-2005 09:40:16 EDT by MWP