[Israel.pm] OT: Copying intangible property

[Oron Peled]

On Wednesday 24 March 2004 19:15, Scott Weisman wrote:
> A monopoly is an exclusive grant by the government.

You better read some books about Economics. Goverment imposed monopoly
is the most common one, but there are so called "Natural Monopolies".

An example: Imagine the Sahara desert is cut into pieces and sold to many
different investors. Now think what happens if *after* everybody got their
piece of land, you find that your share is the only part of the desert that
contains fountains of water -- Guess what? You have natural monopoly on the 
water in Sahara desert (no government involved).

Being a monopoly isn't forbidden (AFAIK), but there are special laws that
*limit* what a monopoly may/may-not do.

> Is Microsoft a monopoly? No. 

Yes!
    COURT'S FINDINGS OF FACT 
    http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f3800/msjudgex.htm

Which also contains an interesting discussion about "how a monopoly is 
defined".

> ... but no one forced people to buy their products.

Wrong (read the previous URL). If competitors products are not sold by OEM's
(because of threats detailed at this document) you cannot buy them.

If you think this is just theory, here is a real challenge -- Find any brand
name laptop model that I can buy without including Windows (in the price).

> They largely benefitted by poor business decisions of competitors

Competitors stupidity was making MS job easy (IMO), but if you check
the facts (and not the PR material MS publishes), you'll realize that
that competitors didn't have any chance against a monopoly that *abused*
its monopoly power.


-- 
Oron Peled                             Voice/Fax: +972-4-8228492
oron at actcom.co.il                  http://www.actcom.co.il/~oron

Code Red, Blue or Green there all a symptom of a far more pervasive
and insidious virus, it costs around $200.
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