In my mind, this is a fundamental misunderstanding or misrepresentation of
what the non-Microsoft services are doing.
American Online, CompuServe, et al., have to NEGOTIATE DEALS, which may
involve paying money to the modem companies, computer companies, etc.; they
may negotiate exclusive arrangements, or be part of a set of services
offered.
Microsoft owns the dominant operating system, and as such, when they say,
"we are including MSN bundled with our OS," there is no separate deal, no
separate arrangement. Vendors selling computer systems with Windows 95 are
automatically bundling MSN as part of what they ship. They can't separately
negotiate to not include it, since they're required to under their license
from Microsoft.
Bundling is not the issue. Microsoft is requiring this; AOL and others are
negotiating for it. See?
Glenn Fleishman
Not a gadfly
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