begin quoting Todd Walton as of Fri, May 06, 2005 at 08:00:31AM -0700: > On 5/5/05, DJA <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > In practical economic terms Microsoft /is/ a monopoly in the operating > > system market. In that market Linux is still little more than a Glob Fly. > > Well, "monopoly" usually means something more than just successful.
Yes. > It usually implies some kind of extra-market wrong-doing. Wikipedia sez: -- In economics, a monopoly (from the Greek monos, one + polein, to sell) is defined as a persistent market situation where there is only one provider of a kind of product or service. Monopolies are characterized by a lack of economic competition for the good or service that they provide, a lack of viable substitute goods, as well as high barriers to entry for potential competitors on the market. I spent a few moments reading verious definitions, and I didn't find any that implied some kind of extra-market wrong-doing. When we discuss the ramifications of monopolies, we eventually end up there, but I don't think it's useful to extend the term to automatically include the presumption of wrong-doing. Otherwise, we need to think of another term to describe an exclusive seller that is not engaged in some sort of wrong-doing. -Stewart "See how I avoided discussing Copyright? ... Ack! Darn." Stremler
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