[LINK] Xbox, modchips and law vs business model

[Chirgwin, Richard]

Generally, when threats are given, there's an alternative offered ... "do
it, OR". Not in this case - SB simply says "we require". It's feasible, I
guess, that fed.gov.au may say "stuff your requirements, the law is the law"
- but I don't think Centabet would give me odds.

Do we really believe that the "or" is "or we'll stop selling X-Box in
Australia"? Or is it more likely that the "or" means "or we're going to
lobby you from every conceivable direction to change the law"?

In my mind, the "or" most likely is that MS will threaten to deny Australia
access to X-Box tools - the rationale being that "since Australia won't
change its laws, Microsoft won't put the X-Box intellectual property at
risk". 

This is the threat most likely to draw lobbying from outside MS. A games
developer industry lobby will call on the Federal Government to save them
from ruin, by changing the Trade Practises Act. And federal ministers will
tell us they're not prepared to put thousands of jobs and hundreds of
millions of dollars of export revenues at risk.

(Quotes will probably run along the lines of: "The legitimate jobs of
thousands of honest Australians are more important than protecting the
illegal activities of a handful of anti-social hackers".)

Bets anyone?
Richard Chirgwin

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jan Whitaker [mailto:jwhit@PrimeNet.Com]
> Sent: Sunday, 20 October 2002 08:17
> To: Lars Gaarden
> Cc: link@www.anu.edu.au
> Subject: Re: [LINK] Xbox, modchips and law vs business model
> 
> 
> At 02:33 PM 19/10/02 +0200, Lars Gaarden wrote:
> >http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/18/1034561304223.html
> >
> >This is really something. If Ballmer is quoted correctly, he
> >is saying that if australian law is incompatible with MS'
> >business model then the law has to change.
> 
> The last paragraph seems to support what you say. Maybe he 
> has that sort of 
> power in the US [now that the Repugnicans are in control] and 
> forgot where 
> he was for a moment.
> 
> >"Given the way the economic model works, and that is a 
> subsidy followed, 
> >essentially, by fees for every piece of software sold, our licence 
> >framework has to do that," Mr Ballmer said. "If there are 
> aspects that are 
> >not allowed, it would encourage us to require a change in the legal 
> >framework. Otherwise, it wouldn't make economic sense."
> 
> 
> 
> JLWhitaker Associates
> Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
> jwhit@primenet.com  --  http://www.primenet.com/~jwhit/whitentr.htm
> 
> 
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