<< Microsoft has
enormous market power over me today by virtue of the large stock of
documents I have written in Word formats. >>
Lock-in effects can help to create useful standards (VHS) but may be inferior quality (Beta). I've never used a Mac but Doug (as well as anyone else) knows what a better system it is (Again, I defer to the almighty DH).
It is not clear to me what is so novel about all this: can capitalism exist without excludability/appropriately of profits? No. You want to give away software, music, econometric algorithms, etc. Fine. But unless you've got a trust fund, working wife or some other visible means of support, I'm not sure how long you can sustain this kind of non-market activity.
Brad: what is the (ultimate) punch line you are suggesting??? That shareware is going to reconstitute the property relations in capitalism or that zero incremental cost of computing will somehow raise the standard of living of poor Americans?
I always thought we should organize society like the stock cabinet at an insurance company: you need pencils, got take 'em; you need paper, go take 'em. On the other hand, about a year before they left NYC, management created a "stock monitor" who required us to give in the cardboard back of our pad or empty pen to "prove" that we really needed it. So much for socialism in one company!
Brad, I'm interested in your argument, but I need to think through where you are headed with it.
Jason