Fwd: Re: [rms@gnu.org: Nonprofits and free software]

>From: "Robert J. Chassell" <bob@rattlesnake.com>
>To: pubsoft@isoc.org, rms@gnu.org
>List-Archive: <http://www.isoc.org/mailman/private/pubsoft/>;
>Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 16:47:14 +0000 (UTC)
>Subject: Re: [PubSoft] Re: [rms@gnu.org: Nonprofits and free software]
>
>[Not CC'ing to oss@isoc-vn.org since I receive messages saying
>
> Mojo Mail Error:
> You're Not Allowed to send messages to this list.
>]
>
> I don't think, that you can compare Vietnam so easily with Malaysia
> or other countries ...
>
> First, those countries are more Dollar-rich, .... And while
> Vietnamese will hopefully get a bit more "rich" over the next
> years, so will MS probably raise their prices.
>
>In that case, Microsoft is not likely to expend lobbying effort to
>persuade the US government to try to persuade the Vietnamese
>government to understake actions that would make money for
>pro-Microsoft people in Vietnam and make money for Microsoft in the
>US. If the market is too small, they will not bother going for it.
>
>Only if Vietnam looks like it will become a `success' (in economic
>terms), will they bother.
>
> Consider also, that with trade liberalization etc., it becomes more
> and more difficult for sellers to charge different prices in
> different markets.
>
>I don't understand this point. `Trade liberalization' is not about
>more widespread smuggling (although there is that), but about setting
>up trade relations in which companies can settle disputes with
>strangers relatively cheaply (for the predominant companies) and in
>which, nowadays, the legal metaphor makes a non-rivalrous product,
>such as software, similar to a rivalrous product, such as a shoe.
>
>(A shoe is `rivalrous' because if you wear it, I cannot; our uses
>`rival' each others. But software is `non-rivalrous' because I can
>share a program with you and your use does not preclude mine.)
>
> Second, the timing is different. OpenOffice is becoming e.g. now a
> much more viable alternative to MS Office than it was a short time
> ago.
>
>True. This also means that nowadays, companies, schools, and others
>will pay less, in relearning time and the like, when shifting from a
>Microsoft user interface and data formats to a free interface and
>formats.
>
>The only way Microsoft can prevent the `transition cost' from dropping
>further is to get police and courts to prevent such a transition.
>Obviously, the Microsoft managers will not bother to lobby governments
>to organize their police and courts if the managers don't thing the
>results matter. You may be right about Vietnam being more like
>Cameroon than Malaysia, and not worth the time of Microsoft managers.
>But suppose they do think that Vietnam is going to become an economic
>success? Then they will press the US government to press the
>Vietnamese government.
>
> Thirdly, the product is different. There are reasonable
> (i.e. Spanish and Portuguese) versions of Windows and MS Office
> available for South America. There is nothing for Vietnamese. MS
> would have to decide whether the comparable small and very
> Dollar-purchasing-weak Vietnamese market would justify their
> development cost, ....
>
>Hah! The very first time I saw KDE, the developer toggled between
>Icelandic and English. He told me that some Icelanders wanted
>Microsoft Windows and their office suite in Icelandic. The Icelanders
>even offered to do the work themselves, so long as they were given
>legal access to the source code. But Microsoft refused. So the
>Icelanders switched to software which they had the legal right to
>modify and redistribute, which was KDE.
>
> .... Do you seriously think, that any police could stop you
> whistling whatever you like, even if the composer would ask for
> royalty fees? It is just out of the question. Ridiculous. ....
>
>A friend of mine is minister for a church. She told me that the
>treasurer of the church pays every year for a license for members of
>the church to sing `Happy Birthday'. (In the US, that song is widely
>known and often sung at birthdays.) The license is enforced by the
>fear of legal suit. The administrators of the church figure that if
>they behave illegally, some disgruntled church member will tell the
>organization that collects these fees about the song and that the
>church will end up paying more than if they simply pay each year.
>
>Restaurants also pay annual royalties so that their patrons can sing
>`Happy Birthday'.
>
>According to various stories I have heard, ASCAP, the US organization
>that collects these fees, has first targeted richer and more obvious
>companies, and then gone after the not-so rich.
>
>Obviously, the ASCAP method fails when corruption is such that courts
>do not serve to settle disputes. Suppose the church treasurer were
>cousin of the only judge that counted .... and the treasurer could be
>confident that the judge was on his side? For the technique to
>succeed, judges and police must be somewhat disinterested. Moreover,
>the judge and others must believe in the validity of applying
>`rivalrous' property notions to the act of singing a song, a
>`non-rivalrous' act; otherwise, they will not see any reason for such
>a pro-monopoly enforcement action.
>
>--
> Robert J. Chassell Rattlesnake Enterprises
> http://www.rattlesnake.com GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
> http://www.teak.cc bob@gnu.org
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