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Technology Stocks : MSFT Internet Explorer vs. NSCP Navigator -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bearded One who wrote (19018)	5/13/1998 3:40:00 PM
From: Reginald Middleton	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 24154

The problem is that you have come across words that you are not familiar with, which automatically makes them "buzzwords that hide more than they reveal." To help you out: hypergrowth - growing faster than the rate applied to the cost of capital. Supernormal profits - profits that are above that of your industry's peer group. Barring you knowing everything, if every time you came across a term you didn't understand they became "buzzwords that hide more than they reveal," then we would have some seriosu problems, wont' we. <For example-- there's plenty of software legislation out there already.> Okay, name plenty of software legislation. <Software is covered under copyright law, for example. Some software is covered under patent law as well.> Copyright law is not software specific, it is more akin to intellectual property law if I ma not mistaken. Also, if I am not suffering from faulty memory, patent law only covers software as part of a complete system which must include proprietary hardware desings as well. Therefore as far as I can see, your assertions are totally incorrect. An valid example of industry specific regulation would be the Glass-Steagal Act which separated commercial and investment banking (as well as limiting the underwriting of insurable risks). <If I interpret 'legislation' to mean "controlling when and what software is released by major companies," then you may have a point. But nobody is trying to do that at this point, of course.> It appears that is exactly what the DOJ is trying to do. They are trying to tell MSFT what they can and cannot include include in Win 95/98 and they are states are threatening injunctions to limit when it can be released. Aren't you following the news? <Suppose the Feds enacted legislation saying that any operating system manufacturer must publish all API's 6 months before the operating system comes to market. Would that destroy our software industry?> It would destroy the protections currently afforded by our extant intellectual property and trade secret laws; thereby limiting the competitive advantages our most powerful software companies currently enjoy over their competitors. That is the reason the API's are secret to begin with. <What if the Feds enacted legislation stating that a large company can't undercut a small company's products by selling at a loss, "cutting off their air supply" so to speak? Oops, they already enacted that. I think it's called the Sherman Act or something.> Before we go further, define the word loss. As I see it MSFT is not incurring an economic loss on any of the products they are competing with NSCP on.