None this addresses the fact that copyright is monopoly privilege backed by monopoly force. |
Government is bad, we've already established that. But that has nothing to do with Microsoft. They didn't create the government, and they used to stay out of Washington, which was very unusual for a company their size, and which led to their near-crucifixion in late 1990s. Government or no government, people still need to get things done and innovate and create jobs in this imperfect world, and Microsoft has done a very good job at that. Conspiracy theories aside, its market share didn't come from Mommy Government, it came from catering to what the idiot public wants - and there isn't anything wrong with that. Most of its money comes from hardware bundles, business contracts, and now online services. Microsoft loses a lot more to government force than it gains from it, a lot more!
Microsoft has
donated money to the Cato Institute, which
isn't exactly a cheerleader for intellectual property!
Now you're just being delusional.
It's not about "open source" - proprietary source code can get more eyeballs and be better documented than "open source", and actually be easier to modify without recompiling. And open source can be so obfuscated it only causes confusion. Government regulation is what it's clearly all about. They want the state to control your software, and ultimately, since their economic model is not sustainable, to pay for its development. Aside from a few moocher companies trying to hurt Microsoft, the vast majority of the most innovative "open source" code is still paid for at tax-victim expense...
Copyleft is a gun, and the anti-capitalist lobbyists can pull the trigger at any time,
even against the author's wishes! I've also demonstrated how the Copyleft lobby is becoming more and more draconian as it gains market share, with GPL v3, AGPL, etc. It fits every pattern of every other tyrannical government power-grab in history!
Genuinely free open source software is a good thing, and is an inevitable phenomenon of free market capitalism, but Copyleft ain't it.
Copyfree software like
OpenBSD can't cut the mustard in client-side computing just yet (and the quality of Copyleft software isn't that much better). Microsoft fills the client gap just right.