My predictable, pointless addition to the predictable, pointless MSFT debate (was: "RE: Article: Document or else")

[Andrew Warren]

Combs, Richard wrote:

> Gee, Lou, I guess we should all be grateful that people like you (and
> the Eurocrats in Brussels) are so smart that you know exactly how the
> world should work. ....
> 
> Katie, thank you very much for your wonderful remarks:
> 
> > If people don't like proprietary file formats, then they
> > should choose a tool that doesn't use them. Don't legislate
> > how people should make things.  Especially since industry changes
> > a heck of a lot faster than government does.

Richard:

You work for Polycom, right?  Your company only exists because the US
government forced the Bell System in 1968 to allow non-Bell equipment to
be attached to its lines.  That action, like the indictment and eventual
conviction of Microsoft, was necessary precisely to allow consumers the
free choice that you and Katie so adamantly want all of us to have.

The EU isn't threatening Microsoft with a $2.5M/day fine in order to
TAMPER with the free market; the intent is to ALLOW the marketplace to
be free by correcting some of the damage caused by Microsoft's past
criminal behavior.  Katie's assertion that "industry changes a heck of a
lot faster than government" is only true if that change isn't being
illegally curtailed by unfair competition: When an illegal monopoly
exists, innovation stalls and change stops.

I couldn't tell from your post whether you were opposed to the idea of
governments prosecuting criminal corporations, or just to the details of
the punishment.  If it's the latter, you'll be relieved to know that the
daily fine described by Katie as "highway robbery" isn't even
particularly huge; it's only about half of one percent of Microsoft's
daily revenue.  I spend that on cigarettes, and I'm not even a heavy
smoker.

-Andrew

=== Andrew Warren  - awarren at synaptics.com
=== Synaptics, Inc - Santa Clara, CA