[ Thanks to Thad
Phetteplace for this article. ]
The following internal memo has leaked from the highest
levels of Microsoft and found its way to my desk. Sorry, I can’t
reveal my sources, but I am sharing it so we can all reach a better
understanding of Microsoft’s thinking regarding free and open
source software. Enjoy. 😉
Title: The Danger of Sharing
Author: An Anonymous Microsoft Executive
Date: November 18, 2003
A dangerous plague is sweeping the land… a plague of sharing.
It hides under the the seductive name of ‘Free Software’ or
sometimes ‘Open Source’, but underneath it is just plain and simple
sharing. I’ve warned the world of this threat on many occasions,
but I’ve discovered my warnings were not broad enough. You see,
this evil called sharing is not limited to just software.
You can find signs of it everywhere, along with the economic
ruin that follows it. Why just the other day I discovered this
place called a ‘soup kitchen’. It was providing meals… for free!
Just image the damage that would be inflicted on the restaurant
industry if this soup kitchen thing catches on. The effects could
already be seen in that neighborhood; all the other people in the
soup line seemed very poor, and there was not a five star
restaurant to be found anywhere nearby. I’ve even seen evidence of
this sharing epidemic among our own employees. Just the other day
one of the interns brought in muffins and gave them away, you
guessed it, for free! Perhaps it would not have been so bad if she
had actually purchased them from a bakery, but she actually
admitted to baking them herself. She said she enjoyed doing it and
was happy to give them away so other people could enjoy them
to!
Can you imagine the impact on the bakery industry if this sort
of thing catches on! But it doesn’t stop there. She went on to
thank several of her coworkers for helping her move into her new
apartment. Yes, you heard correctly, people actually helped her
move, FOR FREE. Image all the work lost to moving companies from
this sort of activity.
Perhaps giving away free muffins seems like no big deal to you.
After all, the damage that one person can do is limited to the
number of muffins that one person can bake. The cost of production
puts a cap on the amount of destructive sharing this person can do.
But when we enter the realm of software and other forms of
intangible ‘intellectual property’, the cost of production quickly
bottoms out. After the first one, the rest are essentially
free!
In a free software world, there is no room for Microsoft’s 85 to
90 percent profit margin on Windows and Office. The company might
be forced to survive on the thin 5 to 9 percent margins that most
of the technology industry suffers with. Even worse, it might have
to rely on other sources of revenue, like support services.
Imagine the impact to the economy if all that money currently
being funneled to Microsoft software was instead left in the hands
of our customers. Imagine all the ways in which those companies and
home user might squander that money. I realize some of you out
there will try and argue that spreading money around is better for
the economy than concentrating it in one place, but that argument
only holds water if someone besides Microsoft is capable of
innovation, and we all know how silly that idea is.
In conclusion, we must all do our part to stop this plague of
sharing. Just as surely as mechanized looms threatened the weaving
industry of the early 19th century, the cooperative development
methods of the so called free and open source software movements
threaten our current proprietary software industry. The sharing
must be stopped.
Sincerely,
Anonymous@microsoft.com