Posted by Jochem Huhmann on 02/21/07 20:14

"G.T." <getnews1@dslextreme.com> writes:

> So you'd be happier getting all your news from one source? Having no
> options on banking? Paying outrageous fees at a single ticket
> company?

While I think that options and competion are good things, companies
trying to lock in and suck out customers aren't neccessarily better.
There *have* to be open standards and free choice (without lock-in) to
create a transparent market. *We* (as citizens) have to make sure that
there are limits and regulations to make sure that the market is fair.
That's what laws are for and what politicians are paid for. That we (as
customers) have to wait for the fscking music industry to make up their
mind is a shame. The Internet and the Web weren't products. They were
standards, with standard implementations, which were free to use and to
build upon. The same companies which whine about not being able to
"distribute unprotected content" are happily using standards and
protocols and software that would ruin them if they were patented and
needed a license to use them. And without these open procotols there
would've never been a Internet at all.

There are times I think that fair and just capitalism is as achievable
as fair and just socialism. If you have reasonable and honest customers,
workers, executives and politicians, things may work out fine in both
cases. If not, you'll be fscked both ways. Which actually is a fine
enlightment, because it allows to just look at what works and what not.
And DRM does not work.


Jochem

--
"A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no
longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

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