[jjk166]

That's the government coercing you, not microsoft. I'm sure microsoft doesn't mind a captive market, but if the government decides to use slack or whatever instead, you're going to switch over to slack regardless of any protest from microsoft.

The companies which seem to benefit the most from the government's power are the ones which would suffer the most from losing the government's current favor. They must bend over backwards to stay in the government's good graces, not the other way around.

[beagle3]

However, if microsoft dislikes me for something I did, they can kick me out; Google has done so with respect to Android APK related stuff, for example.

I'm sure courts can properly resolve this, after a few months, if it did happen ....

It's the government coercing me to comply with Microsoft's TOS that's the problem.

> They must bend over backwards to stay in the government's good graces, not the other way around.

Of course, but they pay for the government's good graces by e.g. giving them free access to all hosted data -- not by making sure the users are well taken care of..

[jjk166]

If a restaurant owner doesn't like me taking my shoes off, they can kick me out. There is a clear business interest in maintaining an atmosphere where people want to eat, and my bare feet would make plenty of people lose their appetites.

If the government points their guns at me and says eat at that restaurant or else, the restaurant owner has done nothing wrong. It is the government forcing me to wear shoes, not him. Even if he lobbied for a law that made dining at his restaurant mandatory, the government still decided on its own to go along with it - the restaurant owner had no power to make them do it. Forcing the restaurant to allow me to take my shoes off will only make the dining experience of everyone else forced to eat there more unpleasant.

It is dumb that the local school chose a setup that relies completely on Microsoft. You and everyone else negatively affected should be sure to show your dissatisfaction with the school board on election day. But there's nothing wrong with Microsoft having the ability to kick you off if it doesn't like you.

[beagle3]

Perfect analogy.

Unfortunately, said restaurant owner can (and has) kicked people of for sharing recipes that owner thinks it owns (but doesn’t have to prove)

The problem was never with the shoes off crowd.