From:	"Ojaste,James [NCR]" <James.Ojaste@**.GC.CA>
Subject:	Re: Corps care about money,
Date:	Mon, 4 May 1998 11:20:30 -0400

Wordman wrote:
>While making a point almost unrelated to the one I'm now making, James
>Ojaste listed some possible strategies for corps dealing with an
>encroaching freeware operating system being released, writing:
>
>> Mega #1 ties things up
>> legally while Mega #2 writes virii to combat the OS directly, while
>> Mega #3 kills the author(s) to discourage further development.
>
>Mega #4 hires the writers to build the product for them (or keep it
>perpetually unreleased and eventually move the writers into something
>else). Mega #4 would probably win, unless the writers were _extremely_
>idealistic.
[snip]

I discounted this, since we were talking about a situation like the
current-day situation between two OSes that GridSec doesn't want me
to mention, but one of which is corp-owned and the other is freely
available and for which the developers *are* idealistic. The
question, as I saw it, was "how does the corp deal with the OS,
presuming that they can't buy it".

>Mega #3, who went for killing the authors, wouldn't last long. Talent and
>training are very hard to find; you don't get ahead by wasting people who
>demonstrate both. Save murder as a way of solving problems for people who
>care about honor and vengence and so on, like the Mob. Corps care about
>money, not people. Sometimes, its smart for a corp to kill, but usually
>cash will solve the problem with a lot less fuss.

Yeah. Since we were discussing idealists (and even fanatics), I
proferred that solution (1 out of 3 ain't bad). The best solution
by far is to hire the author(s), but not everybody wants to become
a wageslave...

James Ojaste