On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 2:47 PM, Tim Vander Kooi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I don't think that a lawsuit would go far, unless the courts are also going > to force AVG and the others to stop providing their products for free also.
Well, IANAL, but my understanding is: The difference is that Microsoft also sells the OS. You *have* to run *Microsoft* Windows if you're going to run Windows. On the other hand, you don't *have* to run *Microsoft* anti-virus. But if Microsoft starts including AV in Windows, their competitors are at a disadvantage. In the world of anti-trust law, this is called "product bundling". Microsoft is generally considered a monopoly, in the US and the EU, anyway. See, for example, US v. Microsoft (1998). (Others may disagree, but the courts' opinions are what matter for this discussion.) In the US at least, monopolies are not illegal in and of themselves, but they *are* prohibited from doing certain things, including product bundling. So AVG can give away their stuff if they want, but Microsoft cannot. Or so I would expect a lawsuit from the AV industry to claim. -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
