Maricopa County mtg report

[Robert Bushman]

On Tue, 9 Jul 2002, Trent Shipley wrote:

> > > Maricopa County has to hook up data internally and with other gov't
> > > bodies, e.g state and fed ( FBI ).
> >
> > This is an important aspect to the overall campaign. We need to remind
> > every group that their requirements for Microsoft are furthering the
> > monopoly. The monopoly is not in the best interests of the citizens of this
> > country or in the best interests of our economy.
>
> THAT is very debatable.  Maricopa IT's position is implicitly that the MS
> monopoly is a *good* thing.  The resulting obligitory standard coupled with
> ease of use (deskilling) more than offsets the marginal cost of any monopoly
> rents extracted by MS.

Incorrect. That is only a valid argument in the short
run. Free market economic theory makes it very clear
that long run efficiency requires perfect information
and no artificial barriers to entry (among other things).
Microsoft's abuse of its monopoly has included violations
of both of these requirements. Unless Microsoft publishes
its APIs and document formats, and ceases its anti-
competitive use of its monopoly power, it is damaging
the market.