Tag: Competition
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The Microsoft Case: The Government's Theory, in Hindsight
Continuing my series of posts on the tenth anniversary of the Microsoft antitrust case, I want to look today at the government’s theory of the case, and how it looks with ten years of hindsight. The source of Microsoft’s power in Windows was what the government dubbed the “applications barrier to entry”. Users chose their…
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The Microsoft Case: A Window Into the Software Industry
This week I’m publishing reflections on the Microsoft antitrust case, which was filed ten years ago. Today I want to consider how the case change the public view of the software industry. Microsoft’s internal emails were a key part of the government’s evidence. The emails painted a vivid picture of how the company made its…
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The Microsoft Case, Ten Years Later
Sunday was the tenth anniversary of the government filing its antitrust case against Microsoft. The date passed almost unnoticed, though echoes of the case continue to reverberate. This week I want to reflect on the case, with the benefit of ten years’ hindsight. I’ll write at least three posts: today, on the overall legacy of…
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Comcast's Disappointing Defense
Last week, Comcast offered a defense in the FCC proceeding challenging the technical limitations it had placed on BitTorrent traffic in its network. (Back in October, I wrote twice about Comcast’s actions.) The key battle line is whether Comcast is just managing its network reasonably in the face of routine network congestion, as it claims,…
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Google Objects to Microhoo: Pot Calling Kettle Black?
Last week Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo at a big premium over Yahoo’s current stock price; and Google complained vehemently that Microsoft’s purchase of Yahoo would reduce competition. There’s been tons of commentary about this. Here’s mine. The first question to ask is why Microsoft made such a high offer for Yahoo. One possibility is…
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Scoble/Facebook Incident: It's Not About Data Ownership
Last week Facebook canceled, and then reinstated, Robert Scoble’s account because he was using an automated script to export information about his Facebook friends to another service. The incident triggered a vigorous debate about who was in the right. Should Scoble be allowed to export this data from Facebook in the way he did? Should…
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Three Down, One to Go: Warner Music to Sell MP3s
Warner Music will sell music through Amazon’s online store without DRM (copy protection) technology, according to a New York Times story by Jeff Leeds. This is a big step for Warner, given that earlier this year Warner CEO Edgar Bronfman said that selling MP3s would be “completely without logic or merit.” The next question is…
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Universal Didn't Ignore Digital, Just Did It Wrong
Techies have been chortling all week about comments made by Universal Music CEO Doug Morris to Wired’s Seth Mnookin. Morris, despite being in what is now a technology-based industry, professed extreme ignorance about the digital world. Here’s the money quote: Morris insists there wasn’t a thing he or anyone else could have done differently. “There’s…
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Workshop: Computing in the Cloud
I’m excited to announce that Princeton’s Center for InfoTech Policy is putting on a workshop on the policy and social implications of “Computing in the Cloud” – the trend where companies, rather than users, store and manage an increasing range of personal data. Examples include Hotmail and Gmail replacing desktop email, YouTube taking over as…
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Radiohead's Low Price Might Mean Higher Profit
Radiohead’s name-your-own-price sale of its new In Rainbows album has generated lots of commentary, especially since comscore released data claiming that 62% of customers set their price at zero, with the remaining 38% setting an average price of $6, which comes to an average price of $2.28 per customer. (There are reasons to question these…