> have not done anything to illegally or unethically corner the instant messenging market
Illegal no. Unethical?... I think that's debatable. Is a monopoly unethical? Basically, they make it EXTREMELY difficult for any other developer to make a buck off of IM. Imagine if every cell phone, set-top, application developer (Napster has IM capabilities, no?) has to pay royalties or licensing fees to AOL when they incorporate a messaging solution into their service.
Something to consider - Macromedia Shockwave and Flash uses the 2D format. Granted, the application borrows 3D techniques (interpolation, keyframes), but fundamentally, (IMHO) its still 2D... and very popular.
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> have not done anything to illegally or unethically corner the instant messenging market
Illegal no. Unethical?... I think that's debatable. Is a monopoly unethical? Basically, they make it EXTREMELY difficult for any other developer to make a buck off of IM. Imagine if every cell phone, set-top, application developer (Napster has IM capabilities, no?) has to pay royalties or licensing fees to AOL when they incorporate a messaging solution into their service.
Something to consider - Macromedia Shockwave and Flash uses the 2D format. Granted, the application borrows 3D techniques (interpolation, keyframes), but fundamentally, (IMHO) its still 2D... and very popular.