Rick wrote:
> On Sat, 20 Oct 2007 15:49:28 +0000, Linonut wrote:
>
>> October 19, 2007 8:42 AM PDT
>> More states join call for extra Microsoft policing Posted by Anne
>> Broache
>>
>> Updated at 4:00 p.m. PDT: In something of a surprise move, four state
>> attorneys general who previously praised the effectiveness of
>> Microsoft's antitrust settlement with the feds said they're not ready
>> to see five years of oversight wind down just yet.
>>
>> In a nine-page court filing with U.S. District Judge Colleen
>> Kollar-Kotelly on Thursday, officials in New York, Maryland,
>> Louisiana and Florida said they were joining a group of six states,
>> led by California and the District of Columbia, in calling for
>> dragging out oversight on Redmond until 2012.
>>
>> Also mentions some Microsoft Ass-Dragging:
>>
>> At issue is a 2002 consent decree with the Bush administration, most
>> of which is scheduled to expire next month. One small portion,
>> related to a communications protocol licensing program that has
>> encountered numerous delays since its inception, has already been
>> extended through November 2009.
>>
>> This is funny:
>>
>> The latest filing discusses what the attorneys general call the
>> "indisputably resilient" monopoly that Microsoft holds in the
>> operating system realm. They say they are "mindful" that Windows'
>> approximately 90 percent market share in client operating systems is
>> not the only test for how successful the antitrust agreement has
>> been. But, they add, "the absence of meaningful erosion in Windows'
>> market share is still problematic for the public interest."
>>
>> Because of those concerns and Microsoft's "well-known difficulties"
>> in complying with other portions of the consent decree, specifically
>> a server protocol licensing section, it's appropriate for the
>> oversight period to cover a full decade, as is typical of antitrust
>> consent decrees, the New York group argues.
>>
>> I wonder if there's a patent on Microsoft ass-dragging?
>>
>> Or maybe it has already been patent by the Bush-driven Justice
>> Department.
>>
>> I find it very strange that the vast majority just don't seem to care
>> about a desktop-computing monopoly, even in the face of extraordinarily
>> shoddy products.
>
> The great majority has nothing to compare. They generally buy the
> cheapest, as opposed to least expensive, alternatives, and they want what
> everyone else has.
>
> The only way to stop Microsoft is to break it up. Applications go one
> way, operating system goes the other. And it might not be a bad idea to
> compel them to use formats like ODF (properly) as their default format
> for a while.
I think any future monopolies and anti-trust investigations should
look at adverse effects of buying up small companies by big monopolies.
In the software technology sector, the end result is usually less choice.
Big companies force on to little companies the dogma of producing
for only one platform after they have been taken over that then
reduces consumer choices. While consolidation like this happens all
the time, its unacceptable that it has to happen through monopoly
acquisitions to extend a monopoly. If a monopoly wants to extend
itself, it should do so by opening more offices and writing competing
code while the smaller companies produce more cutting edge products
and for more operating systems to collect more revenue.
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