Just came across this story at TUAW, reporting that an anti-trust lawsuit has been filed against Apple for monopolising the online music industry with their tie-in of iTunes to iPods.
Most of the commenters seem to be of the opinion that this is a frivolous lawsuit that has no merit, and that the law firm that took the case should be despised for taking a case that will obviously fail. The contention is that just because Apple have been successful at what they do, why should they be punished?
It’s a valid point; why should a business be dragged through the courts just because they happen to be better at what they do than anyone else in their market? Why should they be forced to open up their systems to allow other companies access to the consumer-base that they’ve worked long and hard to build up? It makes a mockery of building a successful business.
I don’t disagree with the sentiment being put forward; but it does seem that these opinions are held because it’s Apple we’re talking about. Don’t get me wrong, I like a lot of the stuff that Apple do (I’m typing this entry on an iMac, whilst listening to music through iTunes) but there does seem to be a commonly held belief in the wider computing world that Apple = Good and Microsoft = Bad.
But let’s face it. Microsoft have become as big as they are because they succeeded where others failed. And they get slapped down in courts all over the world and forced to give up their proprietary information for no other reason than other companies can’t do it as well as they can. But everyone seems to think it’s right they should be slapped down. And now Apple are being hit with some of the same treatment, but it’s suddenly different. I’m not sure I really see how.
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