Date: Fri, 29 May 2009 09:48:29 +0200 (CEST) From: Wojciech Puchar <wojtek@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> To: Jonathan McKeown <j.mckeown@ru.ac.za> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Canon printer and TurboPrint Message-ID: <alpine.BSF.2.00.0905290939560.5233@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> In-Reply-To: <200905290934.36220.j.mckeown@ru.ac.za> References: <23711563.post@talk.nabble.com> <20090528220640.77ebc490.freebsd@edvax.de> <20090528165247.665ae52c@scorpio> <200905290934.36220.j.mckeown@ru.ac.za>
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> The EU has acted against two companies (Microsoft and Intel) who have used > illegal business methods to protect and extend their monopolies and suppress > competition. This is just the occasion to get another tax by UE clerks. As Microsoft and Intel just pay a fine, and doesn't really change their behaviour, it's just tax that final users pay. Anyway i am against any such regulations. Free Market is a best regulator. As people DO LIKE their products and the slavery by using them - their problem. It would be much better of removing things that are against free market rules, software patents are perfect example. But as most of the world (lead by UE) goes back into socialism, that heroicly fights problems it creates, it won't happen. > Or are you suggesting that a format or protocol which is implemented by > several different companies, allowing vendors to compete fairly on other > grounds (price, features, quality, ... ) while protecting consumers by making This is a proper idea. But both doing this, and not doing this, is not matter of any clerk, politician or king, but of people choice and free market. People should choose if they want to use open standards and be independent, or use closed standards and become slaves. As some people like to be slaves, there are no reason to forbid it. > extra to incorporate it, or penalising them financially for providing > competing products? The worst thing of UE (and other government) is that they are putting their dirty hand into free market at all. > If that's the case, why is no-one trying to use the courts to prevent the use > of ODF, a published standard which is now used by several companies and Free > Software projects to provide a common format for documents? maybe yet? but yes - i think the first poster exaggerated things. UE doesn't (yet?) fights with open standard. They even say they are promoting it. Of course best they can do is not to do anything. > Microsoft has been convicted of doing all these things, in US courts, in > courts in Asia, and in courts in Europe. These are matters of fact, not > opinion. Government in Asia just do the same - another source of taxes. If they would like to really punish MS, fines will be much higher and MEANINGFUL to microsoft. > off and expanded the way it did: once upon a time the US courts did take > antitrust seriously, and prevented AT&T using its telco monopoly to expand Or maybe it solved problem it created - software patents that existed in US already, and prevented BSD to be spread and improved?! Don't you remember. The government is always a SOURCE, not solution to a problem.
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