"Antoon Pardon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> I think you need to look up "extortion" in a dictionary. I can walk
>> up
>> to you and say "if you want me to mow your lawn, you must pay me $1 every
>> time you smoke a cigarette". So long as you can say "no" and all that
>> happens is that I don't mow your lawn (which I have no obligation to do
>> anyway), it isn't extortion.
> If you would happen to have a monopoly on the mowing business, which
> would make it very hard for me to have my lawn mowed unless I took
> your offer, it would be.
Yes, but that's the "if". I have a monopoly on *me* mowing your lawn.
You can, of course, go to someone else to have your lawn mowed. Microsoft
only had a monopoly on *Microsoft* operating systems. Microsoft had no
control over OSX, Linux, FreeBSD, and so on.
Essentially, Microsoft asked for exclusive arrangements. That is,
arrangements wherein you could not sell competing products if you wished to
sell Microsoft products. That's not even remotely unusual.
DS
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