Linux Networks & the Competition Act (Was: Fwd: [d at DCC] Competition Act)

[Christopher Browne]

On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 5:22 PM, Darryl Moore<darryl-90a536wCiRb3fQ9qLvQP4Q at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> I'm not being disingenuous, and I'm not disagreeing with you regarding
> the license. I do disagree with you that "This is a 100% legitimate,
> non-monopolistic approach". Recall in my original post I said many small
> businesses use the OS that came on their system. Usually that is Win
> Home or Win Pro. To get the Business version is almost always an upgrade
> option. This means that if you only want the functionality of Home or
> Pro, but you want to use it on a Linux based machine, you are still
> going to have to put out extra bucks to Microsoft for the privileged of
> doing so. This I see as a barrier and an anti-competitive act as
> described in section 78(1)(a).

This may be undesirable in various ways, but for it to be considered
"anticompetitive" according to the law requires having a fair bit of
evidence *that the court agrees with*.

I fully expect that there are ways of characterizing the above that
allow interpreting it in a way that does not fit into 78(1)(a).

> I do welcome your criticism, but I see your accusation of
> disingenuousness as a slight as it suggest that my posts are less than
> earnest.

My sense is that you may be *too* earnest here, that you are
effectively pre-supposing that your position is the only one that
could possibly be argued.

Microsoft offers operating systems that *are* permissible to run in a
virtualized fashion; that those versions are more expensive than those
for which this is inpermissible does not necessarily reflect an
anti-competitive action.

Or, to be more precise, a court may not necessarily view that this
situation represents anti-competitive action.  I think that's what
Evan has in mind, and I generally agree.

I don't believe this is forcibly about libertarianism: instead it is
about trying to think about what the court (and people that are not
"us") may perceive.

Much as with the tale of the blind men and the elephant (it's like a
tree!  no, a wall!  no, a very smelly rope!), it is quite likely that
there are multiple perspective, and we do not do well to only accept,
as possible interpretations, those that are most convenient to our
preferences.
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