[ILUG] Rather OT... ISP's assets could be seized

[Waider]

According to cybersean3000 at yahoo.com:
> Keep these things in mind:
> 
> * Microsoft has over 90% of the desktop market, yet the American 
> government has difficulty declaring it a monopoly.  IBM and Standard Oil 
> were declared monopolies and broken up with a much lower percentage of 
> market share.

This gets a bit tiring after seeing it so many times.

You do not automatically fall foul of monopoly law by holding the greatest
(or in fact, the only) market share. The so-called monopoly laws are
concerned with how you behave once you /are/ the majority `shareholder' of
a given market. It is a simple matter of arithmetic to prove that a company
holds the biggest share of a market; it is far more difficult to prove that
they are abusing that position, no matter how obvious it is to `everyone'.

The EU have been equally as slow to do anything about Microsoft, as have any
other given nation you care to choose.  I guess they're all part of the
conspiracy.

The law is designed to protect as well as prosecute. If the law were instead
designed to simply declare a holder of > 50% market share to be a monopoly
and thus a target for litigation, you would be disposing of the principle
of innocent until proven guilty.

It's the price of a fair system - some good guys get caught out, and some
bad guys get away.

Waider. I'm not, of course, suggesting the system is even remotely fair.
-- 
waider at dspsrv.com / Chances are I'm not at home right now.