> -----Original Message-----
> From: jm at jmason.org [SMTP:jm at jmason.org]
> Sent: 26 January 2000 17:21
> To: Brian Nesbitt
> Cc: ilug at linux.ie> Subject: Re: [ILUG] Amazon
>> Amazon has, in (b), certainly used a dodgy system to beat up their
> competitors in traditional robber-baron style, so they're not playing
> fair.
>> --j.
> Ignoring Amazon and their dumb patent for a sec. (Their patent makes
no sense to me. Can I patent gravity? No.)
I never recall reading anywhere that to be in business you have to
be "playing fair" with the competition.
Business is not a game, it's a war against other companies that
would like nothing more to ensure than to see that your company is bulldozed
out of the market place as quickly as possible.
There's a name for companies that play fair with other.
Cartels.
Wintel in the 90's is an example of a cozy Cartel, two companies
that used a relationship of winks and nudges to lock down a market segment
and retard the development of the computer industry while keeping prices
artificially high.
Market bloodbaths are what we should strive for, when companies
attempt to kill each other in the market place the beneficiary is the
consumer.
It's the nice cartels in business who play fair with each other we
should avoid.
Mark.
>
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