Microsoft Hatred FAQ

[David Schwartz]

"Peter T. Breuer" <ptb at oboe.it.uc3m.es> wrote in message 
news:0hm233-0ut.ln1 at news.it.uc3m.es...

>> McDonald's won't sell a Burger King their burger patties.

> McDonald's are not in the business of wholesale distribution of burger
> patties so your statement is simply sited in the wrong universe of
> discourse.

    I don't know what drugs you're on, but the McDonald's corporation most 
certainly is in the business of the wholesale distribution of burger 
patties. One key reason to become a franchisee is to access their wholesale 
distribution network.

> Coming back to the current universe of discourse, I assure
> you that a McDonald's director can go into a Burger King and buy a
> burger like anyone else, so no discrimination.  Mind you - I'm not sure
> if they'd let Ronald in.  He's obviously dangerously nutty.

    That's not even remotely analogous. Microsoft didn't say that customers 
who bought OS2 couldn't buy Windows. They said (in acutality something less 
than that) people who buy Windows wholesale can't also resell other 
operating systems. This is perfectly analogous to McDonald's saying that 
retailers who buy their burger patties wholesale can't also sell Whoppers.

>>     You only run into a problem under United States law if the company is 
>> a
>> monopoly. And I've already addressed that issue in this thread.

> If MacDonalds were wholesale suppliers of hamburgers to the
> distribution trade,

    They are wholesale suppliers to those people who agree to their 
distribution terms. This requires, among other things, that you prepare them 
in a precise way and only sell approved items.

> then they couldn't discriminate among their
> customers for the purposes of altering the competitive nature of the
> market in hamburger sales to you and me across the counter.

    I'm afraid I don't understand what "altering the competitive nature of 
the market in hamburger sales" actually means. What is it that you are 
claiming they can't do?

> Companies
> have been sued for trying that - sports shoe manufacturers, I seem to
> recall.  They've tried to make sure their shoes are sold only by
> specified outlets at specified prices, in order to artificially manage
> the market.  That's illegal.  Sued they got (or perhaps "suede").

    What, precisely, is illegal?

    DS