4 ms·

I think it depends upon what that company does with their monopoly. E.g. Microsoft basically has a monopoly in the OS market, which was fine until they unfairl

I think it depends upon what that company does with their monopoly. E.g. Microsoft basically has a monopoly in the OS market, which was fine until they unfairly used that advantage to put Netscape out of business. Now they are in trouble with the EU, etc. But I don't believe this would create a monopoly. My understanding is that the settlement does not stop any other company from going out and scanning the same books. In fact, due to the settlement, I believe it would be far easier for a second company to embark upon the same endeavor since Google will be setting a precedent for many of the legal issues involved. Without the settlement, no one would have access to these books because in many cases it is impossible to track down the rights holders. All in all, I think this settlement does a lot of good for the public.

kiba 17y ago
Netscape was actually killed by apache. Netscape doesn't make its money in the browser market, but actually in the server market. Note, this is from heard-so. So it might be false. Nonetheless, it is an intruging idea that open source competitors are actually silent killers of proprietary software companies. Kinda make you wants to examine history to see who is really the true players and the true good guys and bad guys of civilization.
- Zaak 17y ago
  Netscape started out selling its browser. People bought it because it was significantly better than the free alternative at the time (Mosaic). Then Microsoft came out with Internet Explorer, which was good enough to challenge Navigator, and was distributed for free.
  - kiba 17y ago
    I am not actually suggesting that microsoft didn't beat netscape in the browser market but that the apache project is the competitor that finally killed off netscape's last supply of oxygen. Think of apache as the one to deliever the finishing blow. What's the vote-down for, anyway?

kiba 17y ago

Netscape was actually killed by apache. Netscape doesn't make its money in the browser market, but actually in the server market. Note, this is from heard-so. So it might be false. Nonetheless, it is an intruging idea that open source competitors are actually silent killers of proprietary software companies. Kinda make you wants to examine history to see who is really the true players and the true good guys and bad guys of civilization.

Zaak 17y ago
Netscape started out selling its browser. People bought it because it was significantly better than the free alternative at the time (Mosaic). Then Microsoft came out with Internet Explorer, which was good enough to challenge Navigator, and was distributed for free.
- kiba 17y ago
  I am not actually suggesting that microsoft didn't beat netscape in the browser market but that the apache project is the competitor that finally killed off netscape's last supply of oxygen. Think of apache as the one to deliever the finishing blow. What's the vote-down for, anyway?