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Jerry Pournelle, over at Byte.com, sums up why the government should keep it's stinking nose out of the Microsoft "problem," and also why Hollings should be, er, quiet. He promises more on the latter in months to come. You'll have to scroll down to this heading....



The Senator from Disney



Adam Smith famously said that the greatest enemies of capitalism were successful capitalists. Whenever two competitors met they generally conspired to induce government to erect barriers to entry into their particular line of business. Thus we have government licensing and regulations that effectively see to it that there will be no new automobile companies. Other regulations impose fixed (and economically useless) costs on small companies: If compliance with government regulations requires you to have one person full time just to do that, then this is a much greater burden on a company with 9 employees than on one with 200.
Which neatly sums up why government "sanctions" against Microsoft are a continuance of the problem, not a solution. MS will continue to be MS, whether as one company or a group of companies. A "modularized" Windoze will still be Windoze, with only more inherent problems added in. The solution is competition, which the government helped quash as much as anything done by MS.





I am still drawing up my thoughts on these matters: Freedom of information vs. property rights of authors, performances and publishers, copy protection and its costs. I will have a great deal more on this in coming months. Meanwhile, I urge you all to inform yourselves on these issues. They will affect us all. Do not leave it all to Senator Hollings, who represents only the publishers' interests. At the moment he seems to have the field to himself -- and I don't think he is on your side. He's not on mine.
Bear in mind that Pournelle is a best-selling author. He has a direct interest in intellectual property rights, as that's his stock in trade. Yet he clearly says he doesn't side with how Hollings wants things "cured." Again, government causing the problem, not offering a solution.

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