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> Is that what you call a convicted monopolist That's subtly and importantly wrong: There is nothing illegal or immoral about having a monopoly. It is the na
by wheels 15y ago
> Is that what you call a convicted monopolist
That's subtly and importantly wrong:
There is nothing illegal or immoral about having a monopoly. It is the natural state of affairs for many markets. Microsoft was convicted of abusing their monopoly. And abuse of a monopoly is somewhat tricky to process from an ethical perspective: a company using their base in one market to provide an advantage against competitors in a new, related market is totally normal, accepted business practice. It only becomes "wrong" when it succeeds too often. So how does a company decide where to draw the line without help of the courts? At which point do you stop doing an activity that you've been hitherto commended for?
From a market perspective it probably makes sense to have regulations restricting some cases of anti-competitive practices. But it's malarkey to go from "we have regulation for this" to branding someone unconscionable because they run afoul of it.
- gnosis 15y ago"There is nothing illegal or immoral about having a monopoly. It is the natural state of affairs for many markets." If you are saying that what's natural is necessarily moral, you are committing the "naturalistic fallacy" (aka the "is-ought" fallacy)[1] In brief, it means you are confusing what is (the supposedly "natural state of affairs") with what ought to be (ie. what is moral). It is quite possible to argue that the "natural state of affairs" is, in fact, immoral, and what ought to be (ie. what is moral) should be different from this "natural state of affairs". "Microsoft was convicted of abusing their monopoly. And abuse of a monopoly is somewhat tricky to process from an ethical perspective: a company using their base in one market to provide an advantage against competitors in a new, related market is totally normal, accepted business practice." "Normal, accepted business practice" could very well be immoral. [1] - https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Naturalistic_fallacy#The_is.E2.80.93ought_problem https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Naturalistic_...