Monopoly Madness

Monopolies, whether created by the state or created by the market, can be problematic for open source, and as technology moves forward, new spaces to monopolise are always appearing. Glyn Moody looks at how the authorities should handle the problem.

Something is in the air – and it's certainly not spring, judging by the weather. But everywhere we turn in the digital world, we seem to find monopolies. That's worrying, because monopolies are generally regarded as bad things, for reasons Wikipedia explains: 

Monopolies are thus characterized by a lack of economic competition to produce the good or service and a lack of viable substitute goods. The verb "monopolize" refers to the process by which a company gains the ability to raise prices or exclude competitors. In economics, a monopoly is a single seller. In law, a monopoly is business entity that has significant market power, that is, the power, to charge high prices.

Monopolies carry with them the threat that prices will be higher than they need to be. That's particularly problematic for markets where open source operates, since monopolies are often able to resist open source's downward pressure on prices, or even shut it out of the market altogether...