You are so caught up in defending Microsoft that you are mixing apples and oranges. None of the items that Microsoft is attempting to prevent people from using are Microsoft products. Let's look at the history of what they are trying to protect.
Neither WEB HOSTING, SMTP, POP3, TCP/IP, DNS, FTP nor TELNET were invented by Microsoft - they are all open source code, invented by university students at UC Berkeley and the University of Illinois, long before Microsoft attempted to appropriate them as "their inventions". They were originally made part of the public domain and, therefore, cannot be restricted in their use by any individual or company. Therefore, Microsoft CANNOT legally prevent anyone from loading any other software onto a machine on which their operating system resides. That, is CLEARLY restraint of trade. If I choose to download Imail Express and use it, I know that I am restricted by the total number of users and the fact that there is no list capability. That is very clearly stated on the web site PROIOR to anyone being allowed to download the product. What is also very clear is that Ipswitch does not levy any restrictions as to what other software can or cannot be loaded onto the same machine. Ipswitch is interested only in the valid licensing of their own products, not anyone else's. This will not be decided by either you or me, but, ultimately, but by the Justice Department and the Courts in the European Union, where the most recent Justice Department rulings and agreements with Microsoft are currently under review, and the European Union is looking at putting Microsoft thru an even more stringent series of court tests, and possible additional changes to their code, because of some of the restrictions that they have still have in even after the agreements that were effected by the most recent Justice Department rulings and agreements. Bruce Barnes -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of John Tolmachoff (Lists) Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2003 19:36 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] Windows Server 2003 Web edition debate. > Like it or not, John, we end users have to be protected against the > actions > of a company when that company begins to think of itself as god (lower > case > deliberate). If we allow Microsoft, or any other company, to become > overly > restrictive with any product, then we run the risk of them developing a > product that will be further restrictive until the cycle runs full circle > and we, as the end users and creators of our businesses, find ourselves > beholden to a single entity who has managed to push all of the other > creative endeavors out of business and created a monopoly for themselves. To bad you do not comprehend the issue at hand. A vendor has a product that sells for X amount of money. They decided to come out with a restricted use version for a lower cost. You expect to be able to do what you want with that lower cost version instead of purchasing the full version which has no restriction placed on it of what you can install and run on it. What you are stating is you should be able to install Imail Express for free and then Ipswitch has to allow you to have the list service too. John Tolmachoff Engineer/Consultant/Owner eServices For You To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/
