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Watercoloring metaphor (used to be Re: Antitrust Bill of Rights)
May I quote you on my response to Microsoft's motion to dismiss? (Which I will
post it to the list as soon as it is ready.) You said it so much better than I
was planning to. Beautiful metaphor, pun intended.
Hans
Robert Mark Waugh wrote:
> > > It seems to be a common perception that the persons that are most
> > > effected by the existence and toleration of monopolies are
> > > capitalists, who weren't lucky enough to get in on the ground floor.
> > > I wonder if this is true? The reaction of most entrepreneurs (as
> > > Ralph points out) is to move on the next pasture, and try to grow
> > > their own monopoly. Investors just buy into an already existing one
> > > (Somebody is driving up the price of MS).
> > >
> >
> > No, this is not true. Many entrepeneurs are idea driven. The presence of
> > monopolies keeps them from ever getting financing, or succeeding without it.
> > So their great idea rots.
> > This is like killing one of their children. It hurts.
> >
>
> In a related note, I think that this particular monopoly is slightly different
> because there is a secondary type of person who is affected tremendously by
> this: the developer. I like to use the metaphor of the artist. There are a
> lot of artists, each of whom will say that for their goal, their medium is the
> ultimate medium for doing whatever it is that they want. The current
> situation for developers is as if a really aggressive art supply company that
> only produces water color supplies came into the market, and set about
> destroying all other mediums. What's more, the art supply company, using it's
> ill gotten gains, floods the media with propaganda regarding the inferiority
> of the paintings done with oil, the validity of sculptures, even photography
> is portrayed as a secondary art form, not quite capable of being artistic.
> Seeing as most of the population is ignorant about art as is, people begin to
> buy it after 5 or 6 years of constant bombardment. There are still