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Isn't it Microsoft that's Anti-American?

Story: Is open source anti-American?Total Replies: 2
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cabreh

Mar 31, 2008
12:38 AM EDT 		Now, I'm not an American, but I seem to recall that one of the main reasons for the American Revolution was "taxation without representation". If I'm wrong please correct me.

Now try to go out and buy the computer of your choice without having to pay a Microsoft tax when you really want to run Linux. That's taxation without representation if you ask me. That's very un-American.
dinotrac

Mar 31, 2008
1:03 AM EDT 		>Now try to go out and buy the computer of your choice without having to pay a Microsoft tax when you really want to run Linux

It's easy. The only computers I've paid a Microsoft tax on were computers that had to run Windows.
Bob_Robertson

Mar 31, 2008
12:53 PM EDT 		Microsoft isn't unamerican, at all.

What Microsoft is, economically speaking, is a "rent seeker". By using copyright and patent grants by the state, it seeks to have people pay them who do not wish to.

Merchantilism has been a part of American life since well before the revolution. It was merchantilism that Adam Smith was railing against in _Wealth Of Nations_, and the English system of monopoly grants was passed on to the use US. Traditional, you might say.

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