RE: GPL & commercial software, the critical distinction (fwd)

Forwarded message:

> From: Matthew James Gering <mgering@ecosystems.net>
> Subject: RE: GPL & commercial software, the critical distinction (fwd)
> Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 15:15:18 -0700 

> Show me an example of an unregulated coercive monopoly whose source of
> monopoly power is not ultimately the government.

The Mafia. The handful of world-class coke dealers. Your local church.


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> > Show me an example of an unregulated coercive monopoly
> > whose source of monopoly power is not ultimately the
> > government.

At 05:35 PM 10/1/98 -0500, Jim Choate wrote:
> The Mafia. The handful of world-class coke dealers. Your
> local church

In america the various mafias get plently of competition,
mostly by means short of actual warfare.  Coke is a free
market except for police intervention, and the local church
is most certainly not a monopoly.

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         James A. Donald
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http://www.jim.com/jamesd/      James A. Donald

> > Show me an example of an unregulated coercive monopoly whose source of
> > monopoly power is not ultimately the government.
> 
> The Mafia. The handful of world-class coke dealers. Your local church.

Umm...  both of those are around because the governemtn made the cost of
delivering both alcohol and drugs prohibitively high, in terms of legal
punishments and in terms of sheer distribution costs.  Legal drugs, or
even lightly regulated drugs would spur competition, and probably reduce
the number of poo quality drug batches that make it out into the market.
When your reputation to a bunch of addicts can disappear *and* competition
exists, you can lose a lot of business real quickly.   Production costs
are fairly low on these products, the real costs is in distribution and
defense.

Thsi is *clearly*  a government induced monopoly.


Ryan Anderson 
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