>
> Greetings MegaZone...
>
> > Try proving in court that they are doing it deliberately to destroy a
> > competitor. Where is the line between "get more customers" and "destroy
> > competitors".
> >
There is a line, and it's about time it gets defined.
> Let's see - they are paying thousands of dollars to programmers to write
> advanced software that they are giving away for -- ummm...how much again? $0.
> Sounds like it fits the "unreasonably low" clause to me.
Right, and MS is doing other things, like giving Internet services other
free, otherwise expensive software as an incentive to design a site that
WILL NOT Work with Netscape.
> > Everyday I see retailers selling things at or below cost to them for a
> > limited time, to attract more customers.
Sure, but when you make it boil down to whomever can survive the longest
without making money, that's where it has to stop.
> > Why can't MS give away MSIE in the hopes of getting more people on NT using
> > IIS? MS has *openly* stated that they are trying to steal NS's marketshare.
> > Note the government isn't pouncing - why? Because it is ok for MS to steal
> > NS's marketshare. That is competition.
> If they are not asking for money in return, they are not gaining any
> marketshares. They are trying to forge a monopoly so that in the future they
> can force people to pay them for what they are willing to offer. Windows is
> the perfect example. Not much of an option in OSes for home users these days.
> Netscape is choosing to support OS/2, whereas Microsoft is also
> supporting...welll..ummm...
>
> > Giving away freebies or selling at insanely low prices to get customers
> > in the door is a time honored tradition. It would be a very hard fight in
> > court to prove it was deliberately to destroy competition.
I've heard of one case where it was, a competition between two drug
stores, a dispute over one drug being offered by one store at a rate below
its own cost. I believe the company that did this lost. Was about 2-3
years ago.
> Actually, that was the way things used to be, but the antitrust laws and such
> were put into place to encourage new businesses and assist them in competing
> with unreasonably large corporations (ie, anti-monopoly laws). They were
> created for this very reason.
Bingo. What do you think will happen to us when AT&T or MCI decides to
sell inet access at $12.95 a month unlimited with FREE local phone
service? It could happen. We're the people with the forethought to get
into this business. Most of us didn't get into for the money, and we
started well before everyone including the Discovery Channel decided to
sell Inet access. We did it because we were the geeks, the true pioneers
and we didn't have to wait until it looked impressive on one of those bar
charts in a corportate board room to get into it, like the big companies
did. This is what we can do, we can do it better than a phone company so
let's take what is ours.
As megazone suggested, we need to join forces -- atleast where issues
concerning our future are concerned.
-Jason