Re: Antitrust Bill of Rights - M$ as Philistines in the art world

["Glenn T. Livezey" <glivezey@netserv.unmc.edu>]

  On Sat, 6 Dec 1997 23:51:58 -0500 (EST), Robert Mark Waugh wrote:
  
  >Topic No. 9
  >To: reiser@ricochet.net
  >Subject: Re: Antitrust Bill of Rights
  >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. 
  
  I applaud this construction, the accuracy is sustained throughout so much of the 
  metaphor that it could be the framework for many discussions to come................
  
  
  
  >................................................................................................................... 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 bastions
  >of oil painters because they can still use the canvas that the only remaining
  >canvas maker (the aggressive art supply company) produces.  The solution of
  >course is to ensure that the canvases don't hold oil, and to package their
  >water color with every canvas.
  >
  >In this scenerio, there is a whole culture of people that is affected
  >tremendously by the monopoly's aggressive behaviour that isn't an end consumer
  >or a business man or middle man (dealers, etc, in the art metaphor).  It's a
  >group of people who are very passionate about their mediums, and many of whom
  >are quite specialized in the medium they have adopted.  With the advent of a
  >water-color only society, these artists are becoming more and more pressured
  >out of their ability to work.  The business men can move on into dealing water
  >color paintings, but not all of the painters can move on into the water color
  >medium.
  >
  >I think that there is an inate prejudice towards developers, because people
  >don't understand that it takes a tremendous amount of time and skill to become
  >truely adept at systems of development.  The Microsoft development platform
  >and development systems are sort of like water color: weak, transparent, and
  >terribly inflexible.  You can make fine masterpieces with their systems, but
  >you can't make everything.  To allow Microsoft to continue to destroy it's
  >competition such as it did with borland is to invite a world of Microsoft only
  >development tools on a Microsoft only development platform.
  >
  >In an interesting related note, Microsoft has begun to do to Netscape what it
  >did to Borland... it's paying huge amounts of money to our senior developers
  >in order for them to come to Microsoft and work on their competing product.  I
  >know of a few such cases... you would be amazed at the starting bonuses
  >Microsoft is offering these people.  If this sort of behaviour by a monopoly
  >isn't illegal, I think it should be.  A monopoly obviously has a superior
  >monetary advantage, and will be able to easily woo the senior people that
  >their competitor relies on which large lump sums of money.  This is how
  >Microsoft made their near monopoly in development tools and word processors.
  >Anyways... enough random thoughts... need more sleep... :)
  
  Hardly random. Sleep well, you've earned it by this contribution alone.
  
  
  
  Glenn T. Livezey, Ph.D.
  Director of Perinatal Research
  Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine
  Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology
  University of Nebraska Medical Center
  600 South 42nd Street
  Omaha, NE 68198-3255
  Phone- 402-559-8064
  FAX- 402-559-7126
  e-mail glivezey@netserv.unmc.edu