G
Guest
Title: The Danger of Sharing
Author: Microsoft Executive
Date: November 18, 2003
A dangerous plague is sweeping the land... a plague of
sharing.
It hides under the the seductive name of 'Free Software'
or sometimes
'Open Source', but underneath it is just plain and simple
sharing.
I've warned the world of this threat on many occasions,
but I've
discovered my warnings were not broad enough. You see,
this evil called
sharing is not limited to just software.
You can find signs of it everywhere, along with the
economic ruin that
follows it. Why just the other day I discovered this
place called a
'soup kitchen'. It was providing meals... for free! Just
image the
damage that would be inflicted on the restaurant industry
if this soup
kitchen thing catches on. The effects could already be
seen in that
neighborhood; all the other people in the soup line seemed
very poor,
and there was not a five star restaurant to be found
anywhere nearby.
I've even seen evidence of this sharing epidemic among my
own employees.
Just the other day one of the interns brought in muffins
and gave them
away, you guessed it, for free! Perhaps it would not have
been so bad if
she had actually purchased them from a bakery, but she
actually admitted
to baking them herself. She said she enjoyed doing it and
was happy to
give them away so other people could enjoy them to! Can
you imagine
the impact on the bakery industry if this sort of thing
catches on!
But it doesn't stop there. She went on to thank several
of her coworkers
for helping her move into her new apartment. Yes, you
heard correctly,
people actually helped her move, FOR FREE. Image all the
work lost to
moving companies from this sort of activity.
Perhaps giving away free muffins seems like no big deal to
you.
After all, the damage that one person can do is limited to
the number
of muffins that one person can bake. The cost of
production puts a cap
on the amount of destructive sharing this person can do.
But when we
enter the realm of software and other forms of
intangible 'intellectual
property', the cost of production quickly bottoms out.
After the first
one, the rest are essentially free! In a free software
world, there is no
room for Microsoft's 85 to 90 percent profit margin on
Windows and Office.
The company might be forced to survive on the thin 5 to 9
percent
margins that most of the technology industry suffers
with. Even worse,
it might have to rely on other sources of revenue, like
support services.
Imagine the impact to the economy if all that money
currently being
funneled to Microsoft software was instead left in the
hands of their
customers. Imagine all the ways in which those companies
and home user
might squander that money. I realize some of you out
there will try
and argue that spreading money around is better for the
economy than
concentrating it in one place, but that argument only
holds water if
someone besides Microsoft is capable of innovation, and we
all know how
silly that idea is.
In conclusion, we must all do our part to stop this plague
of sharing.
Just as surely as mechanized looms threatened the weaving
industry of
the early 19th century, the cooperative development
methods of the so
called free and open source software movements threatens
our current
proprietary software industry. The sharing must be
stopped.
Author: Microsoft Executive
Date: November 18, 2003
A dangerous plague is sweeping the land... a plague of
sharing.
It hides under the the seductive name of 'Free Software'
or sometimes
'Open Source', but underneath it is just plain and simple
sharing.
I've warned the world of this threat on many occasions,
but I've
discovered my warnings were not broad enough. You see,
this evil called
sharing is not limited to just software.
You can find signs of it everywhere, along with the
economic ruin that
follows it. Why just the other day I discovered this
place called a
'soup kitchen'. It was providing meals... for free! Just
image the
damage that would be inflicted on the restaurant industry
if this soup
kitchen thing catches on. The effects could already be
seen in that
neighborhood; all the other people in the soup line seemed
very poor,
and there was not a five star restaurant to be found
anywhere nearby.
I've even seen evidence of this sharing epidemic among my
own employees.
Just the other day one of the interns brought in muffins
and gave them
away, you guessed it, for free! Perhaps it would not have
been so bad if
she had actually purchased them from a bakery, but she
actually admitted
to baking them herself. She said she enjoyed doing it and
was happy to
give them away so other people could enjoy them to! Can
you imagine
the impact on the bakery industry if this sort of thing
catches on!
But it doesn't stop there. She went on to thank several
of her coworkers
for helping her move into her new apartment. Yes, you
heard correctly,
people actually helped her move, FOR FREE. Image all the
work lost to
moving companies from this sort of activity.
Perhaps giving away free muffins seems like no big deal to
you.
After all, the damage that one person can do is limited to
the number
of muffins that one person can bake. The cost of
production puts a cap
on the amount of destructive sharing this person can do.
But when we
enter the realm of software and other forms of
intangible 'intellectual
property', the cost of production quickly bottoms out.
After the first
one, the rest are essentially free! In a free software
world, there is no
room for Microsoft's 85 to 90 percent profit margin on
Windows and Office.
The company might be forced to survive on the thin 5 to 9
percent
margins that most of the technology industry suffers
with. Even worse,
it might have to rely on other sources of revenue, like
support services.
Imagine the impact to the economy if all that money
currently being
funneled to Microsoft software was instead left in the
hands of their
customers. Imagine all the ways in which those companies
and home user
might squander that money. I realize some of you out
there will try
and argue that spreading money around is better for the
economy than
concentrating it in one place, but that argument only
holds water if
someone besides Microsoft is capable of innovation, and we
all know how
silly that idea is.
In conclusion, we must all do our part to stop this plague
of sharing.
Just as surely as mechanized looms threatened the weaving
industry of
the early 19th century, the cooperative development
methods of the so
called free and open source software movements threatens
our current
proprietary software industry. The sharing must be
stopped.