[thelist] Business practices and Anti-Trust

[CDitty]

This has been discussed on the Html Writers Guild.  Here is a link to their 
FAQ on the subject.  Didn't read it all since I am not a for hire 
programmer, but figured some of you might find it interesting.

http://www.hwg.org/resources/faqs/priceFAQ.html

Enjoy

Chris

At 02:39 PM 3/18/2001, you wrote:
> >> This fallacy keeps cropping up and I keep wondering why as its total
> >> rubbish. Please check your facts before you continue to propagate this
> >> type of nonsense.
> >
> > have you got anything to say, definitively, that this is not the case?
> > i ask for two reasons... 1) i'd love to discuss some rates and 2) i've
> > never seen anyone prove this assertion isn't true, but i've had a
> > couple lawyers tell me that i can't discuss it in forums like this...
>
>No URLs on hand but I have read in other lists that this type of reasoning
>isn't valid.  This thing borders on being an urban myth (net version) .
>
>I would suggest that the best way to prove that this is true is to come up
>with an FTC case against a developer or producer who discussed prices on a
>public mailing list and was then charged with price fixing by the FTC.
>
>Flying monkeys will pop out of my butt with an air of shocked awe if you
>find any such case.
>
>
>The main points against it are
>
>1) discussing standard, or suitable,  rates is not the same as fixing prices
>
>2) Many people on this list aren't even Americans or even live in the US
>(what the FTC would be able to do to me is highly debatable)
>
>3) There is a dramatic difference between, say, all the web developers in
>Minnesota getting together and setting (or fixing) prices and people in a
>public list from different communities discussing pricing for clients. That
>should be fairly obvious
>
>4) This sort of reasoning would prohibit the publication of pricing
>guidelines of the sort published by the graphic design industry for years.
>
>
>--
>
>Thank God men cannot as yet fly and lay waste the sky as well as
>the earth!
>
>Henry David Thoreau
>
>
>email: zac at pixelgeek.com
>web: http://www.pixelgeek.com/
>
>
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