Community: Leaked MS Memo: The Danger of Sharing
Jul 25, 2004,
by Thad Phetteplace
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 imagine 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
