yes, although that that was a rather different situation, like you said windows came/comes bundled with IE, had microsoft been selling it/giving it away as an entirely separate product users would have had more of a chance of picking alternative browsers, and had that been the case I doubt the government had gone after them at all.
On Thu, Mar 6, 2014 at 11:14 AM, Paul Griswold < [email protected]> wrote: > I suppose I was looking back and remembering the government going after > Microsoft for being a monopoly because it bundled IE with Windows. > Netscape existed back then, as did Apple, but it didn't stop them from > going after Microsoft. > > I'd be interested to see what percentage of the entire market Autodesk has > compared to Newtek, SideFX, The Foundry, etc. > > > ᐧ > > > On Wed, Mar 5, 2014 at 5:09 PM, Raffaele Fragapane < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> People often take the whole antitrust thing a bit too far. >> Antitrust laws, contrary to popular belief, don't prohibit de-facto >> monopolies in any way other than those emerging maliciously or >> aggressively. They are intended to try and avoid them, of course, but there >> is nothing illegal to a monopoly emerging naturally as long as it doesn't >> get exploited, once in place, to further itself in an unfair and >> uncompetitive manner. >> If you have a monopoly on something because you're the only provider of >> such thing that's perfectly legal. It's oligopoly through conspiracy (cross >> company agreements on price fixing in example) that's severely punished, >> and monopoly through conspiracy or aggressive exploitation of an existing >> monopolistic or quasi-monopolistic capacity that are prohibited. >> >> AD is also not considered a monopoly since Houdini, Modo, C4D, LW, and >> various other hanger-ons are all available, and AD generally doesn't coerce >> or litigate much through M&E, almost not at all compared to any other tech >> industry. >> >> Lastly, to those saying the acquisition of Softimage should have been >> stalled or blocked by antitrust, Soft had been gutted by Avid and put on a >> fire sale and handled very dubiously by a couple entirely too career >> focused people inside it. AD did absolutely nothing illegal or dodgy buying >> it. They would have had had they performed an aggressive take over of sorts >> and concurrently done something like slashing prices or offering trade-ins >> at a loss against other platforms, effectively making a move to try and >> sweep the market of competitors, but they did none of it. >> >> Don't get me wrong, I'm not fond of current or past events, but the whole >> monopoly and antitrust discussions are honestly best left out of it. There >> is so much more that is wrong and could be fixed before people contemplate >> class actions and antitrust appeals that are so incredibly unlikely to go >> anywhere other than to brush the pocket lining of a handful of lawyers. >> >> >> >> On Thu, Mar 6, 2014 at 8:38 AM, Paul Griswold < >> [email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Well, as I posted over on CGTalk, I don't think killing Softimage was a >>> real business decision. If M&E account for only 7% of ADSK's revenue, and >>> Softimage is one of the smallest components of that revenue, it's >>> insignificant. But, executives need to pound their chests like gorillas >>> and proclaim to the shareholders & board that they're trimming the fat, >>> etc., etc. If it was truly a business decision, they could have cut a lot >>> more than just Softimage to make an impact on the bottom line. This was >>> all for show IMHO. >>> >>> Realistically, they could cancel all of their M&E products if they're 7% >>> of the revenue. They own enough patents & intellectual property that they >>> could essentially hold the industry hostage and never develop another >>> product. Again Joe Alter comes to mind. Why develop anything when you can >>> sit back and force people to pay licensing fees year after year? >>> >>> Hopefully enough noise is made to start stirring up some anti-trust >>> claims. Autodesk is clearly behaving as a monopoly at this point. >>> >>> -Paul >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> ᐧ >>> >>> >>> On Wed, Mar 5, 2014 at 4:09 PM, Emilio Hernandez <[email protected]>wrote: >>> >>>> Well we all still think that putting Softimage to rest is a big mistake. >>>> >>>> Motion Builder also has not major improvements. So we know how all >>>> will end. >>>> >>>> "We will continue to support and develop..." >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> ------------------------------------------------------- >>>> Emilio Hernández VFX & 3D animation. >>>> >>>> >>>> 2014-03-05 15:02 GMT-06:00 Jordi Bares <[email protected]>: >>>> >>>> If they kill any of those the only one I think would be a mistake would >>>>> be Motion Builder… it has great potential if they decide to actually >>>>> develop it… it has been in limbo mode like Softimage for years now and >>>>> killing the Mac version was truly annoying. >>>>> >>>>> 3DSMax… well… the architecture is so old and messy (have you tried >>>>> developing for Max?) I wonder how are they going to sustain it… >>>>> >>>>> With regards with the users… they may offer the same great deal we are >>>>> receiving.. (irony) >>>>> >>>>> arhghh >>>>> >>>>> Jordi Bares >>>>> [email protected] >>>>> >>>>> On 5 Mar 2014, at 19:45, Emilio Hernandez <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> More reasons to stay with softimage >>>>> El mar 5, 2014 1:42 PM, "Gustavo Eggert Boehs" <[email protected]> >>>>> escribió: >>>>> >>>>>> Yes, but what they might do (are doing imho) is just keeping updates >>>>>> as irrelevant as possible for animation, not to encourage new users to >>>>>> pick >>>>>> it up with that in mind. >>>>>> >>>>>> Em quarta-feira, 5 de março de 2014, Steven Caron <[email protected]> >>>>>> escreveu: >>>>>> >>>>>>> i agree with the first two, just 3dsmax has too much installed user >>>>>>> base. i know we are mad and we are making a stink about it... but if >>>>>>> they >>>>>>> axed max?! autodesk might have to consider extra security... >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> On Wed, Mar 5, 2014 at 11:06 AM, Jordi Bares >>>>>>> <[email protected]>wrote: >>>>>>> >>>>>>>> The writing is on the wall. This is my take. >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> 1 - Mudbox is next as Zbrush has truly wiped the market. >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> 2 - Morion Builder next as they implement some tech in maya. >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> 3 - 3DMax goes next. >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Anyone want to bet? >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> -- >>>>>> Gustavo E Boehs >>>>>> Dpto. de Expressão Gráfica | Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina >>>>>> | http://www.gustavoeb.com.br/ >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>> >>>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it >> and let them flee like the dogs they are! >> > > -- Andreas Byström Weta Digital
