Subject: Re: eBay being sued over patent infringement

From: Vassilis Prevelakis <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri Apr 25 20:43:00 2003

In cctalk digest, Vol 1 #569,
Mail List <[email-masked]> wrote:
> > Doc Shipley <[email-masked]> wrote:
> > MS was charged with exerting undue influence - active coercion - on
> > their customers, using that market share as leverage.
>
> No one ever had to buy Microsoft products. They always could have
> gone with the Macintosh platform, or a Unix system.

This is your personal opinion and I respect it. It does not, however,
change the *fact* that Micro$oft was found guilty of breaking the
anti-trust law. No logical argument can dispute that, since it is a
fact; Micro$oft exhausted the appeal process, so unless the law is
changed, or Micro$oft is pardoned, they remain guilty.  Maybe the
anti-trust laws are wrong, or unfair, however Micro$oft is now legally
considered to have been a monopoly and to have leveraged their status
to gain unfair advantage over their competitors.

**vp

---

From: Mail List <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri Apr 25 21:55:01 2003

Hello Vassilis,

 > to gain unfair advantage over their competitors.

I'm not saying Microsoft didn't have a monopoly on the OS market. I myself
was under a bit of a need to go with Microsoft OS products, because when I
needed to last upgrade my system, I couldn't easily have afforded a Macintosh
computer new enough to perform at a level I would have found satisfactory. I
also couldn't easily have afforded the applications programs I would have had
to purchase to change over to that platform. I didn't easily have the time 
available
to become as familiar with the unix / linux OS to the degree that would 
have substituted
for my familiarity with Microsoft products, and a whole set of apps for the 
unix
platform either. But even though not comfortably done, those were still 
available
options. But for that matter, it might have been that I didn't even need to 
even be
using a computer at all. But if not, I would have had to totally 
restructure my life
because it's current structure is based on the use of a computer, not only for
recreation, but to make a living. Microsoft products work pretty well for me,
though by the time I've added all the third party apps, it is certainly not 
flawless.
I wouldn't want to be running a mission critical application, such as a reactor
plant control system, on it. But thankfully there are other more stable 
OS's better
suited to such a task.

I was just trying to draw a similarity between Microsoft's position in the 
OS market
to eBays position in the online auction market, as I put forth the question 
of whether
or not eBay has a monopoly in the online auction market for the private 
individual.

But here's a couple of links for all to enjoy ...

As I was looking into what Marvin had told us about, I ran across this 
which was
somewhat humorous ...

WHAT IF AIRLINES WERE LIKE OPERATING SYSTEMS?

http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/dosprompt

And for all eBay users, here is the Auction Guild's link ...

http://www.auctionguild.com/

Best Regards