When it's used as a tool that makes it impossible or very costly to switch from what such tool is tied to.
To give an example. If CUDA wouldn't have been tied to Nvidia hardware, developers could use CUDA on any competing hardware. Being tied limits the choice. That's the essence of lock-in damage. Development tools should be development tools, not ways to control the market.
That's why there is value in something that breaks lock-in - that improves competition.
> If CUDA wouldn't have been tied to NVIDIA hardware...
Initially I thought that AMD didn't offer a CUDA reimplementation out of NIH-syndrome (as it would be a marketing coup for NVIDIA), but then I saw that NVIDIA seem to be actively trying to shut-down independent attempts at running CUDA on non-NVIDIA hardware: https://www.techpowerup.com/319984/nvidia-cracks-down-on-cud...
They should lose. As I said in another comment, SCOTUS just ruled that APIs weren't copyrightable, and there's a HUGE parallel with Microsoft and Sun Microsystems over Java. In the end, Sun settled for Microsoft to stop saying "Java compatible" and $20 million. The community on the other hand got OpenJDK four years later.
Just do it. Fuck the lawyers. When you win, you toss some cash and they'll ya for it.
There would have to be more to it. If cuda is just the software that Nvidia customers use, or nvidia hardware is chosen because cuda is better software, it's not going to pass a market welfare test nor would monopolistic practices be found. Expensive switching costs per se aren't considered damage to welfare.
But what prevents anyone from developing an OpenCUDA?
It's been almost 25 years ago, but this was the crux of the Sun Microsystems v. Microsoft lawsuit. It's why OpenJDK exists. Even three years ago the Supreme Court ruled that you can't copyright an API.
I mean, it feels breathtakingly obvious. Not only is there historical precedents for just doing this, there're legal precedents as well.
Cost. What prevents someone from making something new to fight against an incumbent? Cost of entry most of the time. That's the mentality in the lock-in. Make switching too expensive and difficult to even bother. Possible? Yes, but hard enough.
When someone manages to overcome the cost and commoditize what lock-in was walling - it improves things. Even better if someone manages to do it while breaking lock-in itself. Sort of like writing a wrapper to run CUDA on non Nvidia GPUs (what ZLUDA is doing).
To give an example. If CUDA wouldn't have been tied to Nvidia hardware, developers could use CUDA on any competing hardware. Being tied limits the choice. That's the essence of lock-in damage. Development tools should be development tools, not ways to control the market.
That's why there is value in something that breaks lock-in - that improves competition.