I don't think this is it. I think we have been conditioned by the corporate overlords to accept the market prices without question. Our cell phone market, while not an explicit cartel, certainly has the feel of one. There is no meaningful competition and there are significant infrastructure barriers to entry. Also, there is certainly no meaningful regulation. So, the players can charge what they want, and we've just become used to it.

The whole "get the phone cheap and get locked in for 2 years" trick also works. However, to the layperson, buying an unlocked phone of the right technology and getting it activated is a pretty big barrier here, while it may not be that way elsewhere. Again, the quasi-cartel effect.

Except that I believe Microsoft OEM licenses are not transferable. Crazy as it sounds, that Windows license isn't even yours to use as you please, even though you paid for it. It's lunacy.

From what I've seen, anti-piracy mechanisms might, at best, deter real copyright infringment with a 10% effectiveness. But they are very effective at eroding the customer experience. Take these examples:

- laser holes on floppies
- parallel port "dongles"
- DVD encryption
- Product activation
- DRM

Funky floppies meant you couldn't back the program up (and lost it when the disk went south). Parallel port dongles would get lost or broken. DVD encryption isn't much of a hassle but it does mean you have to take the physical disk everywhere you go. Product activation is pesky, especially if you don't have a connection to the Internet when you want to activate. And let's not even talk about the dollars and time lost with music DRM.

Companies are desparate to have their IP rights protected. I get that, and even symphathize. But it's inexcusable to keep putting that burden on the PAYING customers who actually buy their stuff. After more than two decades of this crap, I'm flat-out sick of it.

I would go to great lengths to move my IT customers to Linux. Can someone PLEASE write a servicable office suite so we can cut the cord?

Isn't that past tense? I thought the exclusivity leverage was something that was forbidden by the DOJ in their ruling. Of course, I could be full of beans.

I'm in Oregon and I'd like to see some numbers to back up your claim. I wouldn't be surprised if gas was a little higher, but 25 cents/gallon? I am skeptical. Also, be sure to factor in that different states of the US have wide variations in gas price, and as far as I know, just Oregon and one other state (can't recall) are the only ones that have this provision.