Live by the Sword...

Am I unlibertarian for hoping this guy wins? I mean, live by the sword, die by the sword, right? These companies clearly actively pursue, support, and employ government monopolies (patents) and use them to squelch competition. If this happens to violate federal anti-trust law, is this a tragedy? Man files antitrust lawsuit over printer ink Posted Dec 18th 2007 9:52PM by Joshua Topolsky Filed under: Peripherals One brave, intelligent, and super-cool Boston man has taken the law into his own hands — vis-​à-vis a bunch of attorneys — and is taking HP and Staples to task for an alleged antitrust scheme. According to Ranjit Bedi, the two companies have been in cahoots in an attempt to stop the sale of inexpensive, third-party printer ink at Staples stores. In the suit, it’s suggested that HP paid Staples $100 million to refrain from sale of the cartridges. The story might be harder to believe if it weren’t for the nature of the printer ink business, which seems to be rife with companies engaging in questionable business practices (like selling cartridges which give you an inaccurate read on ink remaining, barring the use of third-party cartridges, and wildly overcharging for branded ink). If you’ve ever owned an ink-jet printer, we’re pretty sure you know exactly what we’re talking about. People — it’s time to fight back.