>[A similar argument was made by Microsoft, who kept asking the >government (despite all evidence to the contrary) to produce a >consumer harmed by Microsoft's use of its monopoly.
[OT] they coulda thrown me up there in a moment. i sincerely believe that (a) MS has harmed me as a consumer of computer goods and (b) i can make a sound (though challengable) argument supporting that. price is not everything. (though: *has* MS Office been getting cheaper? i thouht it was getting more expensive.) >The evidence shows that prices of software have been steadily >declining, which is the exact opposite behavior expected in a >situation where a producer can charge a monopoly rent. In fact, >there's a whole school of thought in economics that says that if you >don't charge monopoly rents, you don't have a monopoly de facto, >even if you do de jure. The government finally made the completely >innovative argument that Microsoft's effective ability to squash >competition meant that customers were harmed because they didn't >have access to technology that >might< have existed if Microsoft >hadn't been so ruthless. It was garbage law, and a terrible >precedent. But I digress.] [still OT]agreed. they should have used one of the tangible, if iffy, real examples, since there are so many available (cases where there were several competitors in a narrow market, then MS jumped in, and the others either went away, or became bit players, frex. it could be argued that in several of those, the consumer was better off (reasons of standards and compatibility), but at least it would have been an argument based in actual occurences, rather than [however-plausible] conjecture). -- woodelf <*> [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://members.home.net/woodelph/ The Laws of Anime <http://www.abcb.com/laws/index.htm>: #33 Law of Topological Aerodynamics, First Law of Anime Aero-Dynamics *ANY* shape, no matter how convoluted or odd-looking, is automatically aerodynamic. _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
