<font color=GREEN>ENVY Ö¿Ö [contd.]
Microsoft had exclusive supply agreements. That's normal. They [I believe] said "If you want to use our products, all the computers you sell have to have MSFT in them". That's sensible, but apparently illegal. Let's face it, there are some people who are not strictly honest about buying software and would buy a computer with no OS and then install a stolen copy of MSFT software.
If the computer supplier doesn't want to agree to exclusive supply, let them sell Wheaties! Or buy operating systems from somebody else.
The assertion was that MSFT has a monopoly. They don't and didn't. [Except in the sense that every transaction anyone makes is an instantaneous monopoly, in which case all people are monopolists] There have always been heaps of operating systems from which to choose. Even if MSFT did have the only operating system, anyone could make one if they thought it worthwhile.
I'm not a legal expert, or even very knowledgeable, but I haven't seen a single thing which makes me think Microsoft did anything illegal or even wrong or unethical or immoral etc. I do understand that the law can make anything illegal and that the law doesn't have to make sense, it just has to have the force of the state backing it up, just as the Vatican could assert that the earth was the centre of the universe and that everything moves around it [which is actually true, but that's another story] and that's the law and nobody better say the earth goes around the sun or they'll get the hemlock, rack or burned at the stake.
The law is only an expression of power, not sense.
Micrsoft committed a crime. We know they did only after the Judge said they did. There was no way beforehand of knowing they did. Reading the law wouldn't help [because it covers all transactions].
I will [probably] sell all my QUALCOMM shares as soon as the Supreme Court decides Judge Jackson was correct. I will derive from their judgement that successful and uppity people will NOT be tolerated. When Q! is the biggest company in a few years, they will be the target. There will be a feast of profits for antitrust lawyers. Q! will be dragged down as the Green-eyed Monster rages across the world.
People scoff at corruption in China. I hope Q! learns from $ill Gates' woes, lets the president win at golf and makes BIG donations to political rulers like Al Gore and George Bush and buys some leeway. That seems to be the way to stay out of trouble. Globalstar didn't seem to learn much from Iridium, so I'm not too hopeful, that one company will learn from another's disasters, though Irwin & co seem to be buddies with Al Gore, Bill Clinton and they have General Scowcroft on the board, and Irwin got the Medal for Technology and Q! supports business in Israel which will support Gore's Vice President and so on around the circuitous route of political cronyism, which is also mentioned in regard to Koreans and Chinese as though it's a negative.
Political bribery and cronyism are alive and well in the West.
I will watch this space closely.
Mqurice
PS: Thanks to political bribery and cronyism, today New Zealand's $ is at another all-time low [went towards 39c]. Simultaneously, the NZ economy is going down the gurgler and the stockmarket is taking a pounding. The USA is an amateur in the bribery and cronyism stakes! That's one reason why it is still the best place on earth to invest, along with SEC jailing crooks and frauds, lowish taxes, etc, etc. It's great for Dove-hunting too. |
