In class Video Clip 11/01/2007

The video in class made me think in terms mostly of those that relate to my life in the most. Microsoft and the iphone. In History, how does the line between copyright, creativity and a monopoly become clustered together in a large grey area where lines are defined on a per-case basis? With microsoft, you have to pay for the product, but the product only, you dont the codes to your product to try and better it after you have paid a large sum of money to microsoft. I was also once told that there are other programs you can download for computers besides microsoft office, home ect. I have never heard of them before because most commonly in life everyone uses microsoft. SO, since they comtrol the computer population and do not release the codes with your purchase, only the product and in the sense of real-life usage, wouldn't Microsoft be considered a monopoly for it's use of copyright and high priced product? What other options do we really have that are accepted in today's society? When i purchased a new computer recently i then had to purchase the microsoft package that comes with it. I felt like i was being robbed for the simple fact that to get by in school and get my homework done i had to fork out this $150.00 so that i could type my portfolio and work on my powerpoint presentation. I had no other option.
On the contrary working in the cell phone buisness, we sell you the phone, you pay for the phone, and you sign a two year contract with us saying you'll stay with us. However you can only use that phone with T-mobile network. UNLESS..... you can get the phone unlocked. Because of third party dealers and strong competition you can find people to unlock your phone and use it on other people's network. Or because the object is a physical one, as opposed to a software code, you can physically take it apart and do a hard-wire unlock. This is what has happened with the iphone. It was only a matter of days that people we able to play around with it and get it unlocked. The cell phone buisness I would not consider a hard manopoly in the terms that there are other options to keep the prices competativly cheaper. You can always search or bargin for a good deal. However, once cingular and apple realized that the phones were able to be unlocked they sent out an over-the-air patch that would automatically re-lock the phone to the cingular network and a new un-lock code will then have to be found. This again pushes the manopoly and copyright line. If i purchase the iphone (some were $600.00) why could i not choose to use it for my own purposes? You have my money and i have the product, should the rights be mine now?
Perplexing to me though is that i would never think of purchasing a book, and using their words for my own. But why not? I bought the product, can't i do what i want with it? However to me i would think of the books and words on a separate platform than technology.