Re: Is It Legal to Refuse to Sell or License a Software Product to an Individual or Company for Arbitrary Reasons?
- From: Tim Wescott <tim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 07 Dec 2008 15:42:30 -0600
On Sun, 07 Dec 2008 16:13:33 -0500, Jujitsu Lizard wrote:
Question:
Let's say I'm Bill Gates and I decide I don't like Big Company X
(perhaps because Bill's son asked a Big Company X executive's daughter
out for a date and she said no), is it legal to refuse to sell operating
systems and software to that company?
The reason I'm asking that question is that with some products, such a
refusal to sell could have business consequences for Big Company X.
Is this covered under anti-trust regulation?
And what if the reasons are better, such as heavy software piracy within
Big Company X ... ???
The Lizard
Legal where?
In the US*, AFAIK:
If you're big enough (like Microsoft) to be close to a monopoly, then it
could get you into trouble. Certainly putting conditions on the sale
_has_ gotten Microsoft into trouble. If Big Company X is owned and/or
operated by minorities who could show that you were discriminating
against them because of race or religion**, then it could get you into
trouble no matter what size you are. If your kid asked a Big Company X
executive's kid out for a date and he/she said no and you were dumb
enough to cite it as a reason for not doing business, then it could well
come under sexual harassment*** laws and get you into trouble.
But in general if you're not a government entity then you get to choose
who you do business with. In the US at least, the basic rule of thumb is
that "if it ain't specifically prohibited then it's OK" (although the
list is kinda long). So if you don't like the way that Big Company X
paves it's parking lot, or just the way that they part their hair****,
then you can refuse to do business with them.
* I believe this applies quite strongly to Britain and other common-law
countries, and strongly enough to the rest of Europe, but I'm not even a
lawyer in the US so I dunno.
** I think it's only race and religion that's protected at the moment, at
least for non-government companies. Certainly there are those who are
aggressively trying to expand this and others are aggressively trying to
shrink it.
*** OK, and sexual harassment, too. Gee life is getting complicated.
**** Unless, of course, their religion demands that they part their hair
that way, or because you (or your kid) think they'd be sexier if they
parted it differently, and were dumb enough to comment on it.
--
Tim Wescott
Control systems and communications consulting
http://www.wescottdesign.com
Need to learn how to apply control theory in your embedded system?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" by Tim Wescott
Elsevier/Newnes, http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html
.
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