30 Jul 2000
Microsoft, Antitrust, and the Movement
In last month’s column I showed why the monopolistic dominance of one company’s proprietary operating system was a blessing to the multimedia production companies now seeking to control distribution of music and video through the network. Their approach to the new social conditions produced by the Internet is to try to create a “leak-proof pipe” from the studio where music or a movie is made right to the eyeball or the eardrum of the consumer. Digital transmission of their goods reduces their costs drastically (in fact almost to zero), but they worry that copying of their content at the point of consumption could also drastically reduce their sales.
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columns/lu |
2000.07.30-00:00.00