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Can any of these Windows alternatives to Apple's iTunes compete though with the inherent restrictions built into the wma format?

from News.com.com:

The self-funded company even plans a smidgen of peer-to-peer distribution, according to Sampath. Songs bought through the service will all be wrapped tightly in Microsoft copy-protection technology, but people may be able to download them from each other's computers in order to save on bandwidth costs and download times, he said.

Here

It is in there SEC filing as well

Quote

SCO warned in a filing that its legal costs could be expensive, but the company revealed Wednesday that it doesn't have to bear the brunt of much of its legal costs. To pursue its case against IBM, SCO hired high-profile attorney David Boies, famous for his antitrust victory over Microsoft as well as his loss in the vote-counting controversy representing Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election.

SCO's legal costs are being paid under a contingency arrangement, McBride said. In such cases, lawyers typically are paid not by the hour, but with a percentage of whatever money they can win for their clients in the case.

Has anyone read these comments?

I love how all the positives sound almost the same. It's as if maybe 2 or 3 people (the people involved in ESV?) wrote all the positive comments. The negative comments speak for themselves.

While MS is operating at a loss in an effort to gain market share in the gaming console industry, they are FAR from crushing Sony. Sony expects to have sold 3-4 times the number of PS2s to XBoxes this fiscal year (source).

Furthermore, MS is going to have a hard time crushing a company that brings in double it's revenue (Sony revenue in yen MS revenue), so if it comes down to a battle of who can sustain operating at a loss longer Sony has a decided edge.

Regardless, you are talking about their size and ability to operate at a loss. I was addressing specifically the claim that their "monopoly" would assist in the adoption of their codec over some other companies. They aren't a major player in the DVD industry in either consumer products or media production. They don't have the same advantage as they have in the software industry to force computer manufacturers and hardware manufacturers to bend to their will. The MPAA members, who will be the primary intenties to decide what codec is adopted, are not dependent on MS products for their sales, and they are not succeptable to the same pressures that MS uses in its backyard to gain an advantage in the OS and Office suite market.

So instead of insulting me, care to enlighten me as to how their "monopoly" will influence this decision? Instead of giving me comparisons based on their economic resilience.

Yeah, remember the last time Microsoft tried to alter PC hardware so that it could only boot with...

Before folks get on the Sun-is-doomed bandwagon, take a look at some of the latest offerings from Sun. While it probably does not yield the huge margins of big-iron, the lower-end systems that have recently come out are extremely price competitive. In fact, the x86 servers (the v60 and v65) came in much lower than Dell/HP and most of the white-box vendors for a recent price quote that we did. They seem to finally have their head on straight for the lower end of the market.

Now if only they would come out with an Opteron-based lower end board. The Inquirer had a good article about how Sun and IBM could use the Opteron/AMD64 platform to effectively smother Itanium cutting out both Intel and HP at the same time.

Sun's mistakes are well documented, but the biggest one is believing that what made them successful in the past would make them successful in the future."

If that is the biggest mistake, then the second biggest mistake is the processor-design team. According to "Sun's processor plans slip a notch", the schedule of the UltraSPARC processors has slipped again. The processor-design team has 2 characteristics: chronically behind schedule and chronically behind the performance curve. Right now, the UltraSPARC III is being crushed, performance-wise, by the Power4+ and the SPARC64-V, according to SPEC".

Yet, McNealy stubbornly clings to the UltraSPARC III. If he knew how to run Sun, he would immediately scrap the UltraSPARC III and successors and tell his server team to use the SPARC64-V. He could come out with an E15K that just barely competes against the p690 in about 2 months. The SPARC64-V is instruction-set compatiable with the UltraSPARC III and vastly outperforms it, and modifying the E15K and other Sun servers to use the SPARC64-V is a simple matter.

Time is extremely critical. Sun itself claims that it will lose about 10 cents per share for the first quarter. 10 cents per share means a loss of about $300 million. Extrapolating to the full fiscal year means a loss of about $1.2 billion. In order to compensate for that loss, Sun will need to fire about 6000 employees.

The only conceivable reason that McNealy refuses to abandon the UltraSPARC III is that he fervently supports a workforce weighted in favor of H-1B workers. Sun has many H-1B employees, and they built the UltraSPARC III. By contrast, Fujitsu uses native workers (i.e. Japanese citizens), and they built the SPARC64-V. (IBM also prefers American citizens or permanent residents, and they built the Power4).

McNealy better put aside his ego and go with the SPARC64-V. It is the fastest, safest route to boosting Sun's fortunes. In the future, he should consider giving preference to American workers, not H-1B workers. There is no evidence to suggest that H-1B workers are better than American ones; indeed, H-1B workers might actually be destroying Sun as evidenced by the horribly designed UltraSPARC III.

Most importantly, the SPARC64-V will buy time for McNealy. Maybe 1 year or 2 years of breathing room. Then, he can make the hard decision of spinning off the processor-development group and transforming Sun into a niche player that focuses on two areas: software applications and highend-servers that use Fujitsu processors (or, gasp, IBM processors) designed by native talent. Other possibilities have been thoughtfully outlined by Merrill Lynch, the premier American investment company.

... from the desk of the reporter

The whole "it's too big to hold up to my ear" issues is going away. I never use my cell phone w/ out an ear bud.

A friend of mine has Jaba Freespeak Bluetooth Headset that rocks. He can put his phone on his desk and call me from the coach w/ voice dialing. Bloody cool.

This article over at cnet looks like Microsoft may actually be listening to the critics of trusted computing and rather moving towards what it calls Shield Technology - basically incorporating better firewall technology into the operating system. I for one would welcome this over trusted computing.

Movielink have also just announced a deal with Road Runner to deliver video on demand to Road Runner customers, including a free Movie of the Month.

As I have stated before about Microsoft's purchase of Connectix's Virtual Server technology

In my opinion Microsoft's acquisition of Connectix's Virtual Server technology has very little to do with running any other vendors operating system.

Microsoft needs a Virtual Server for backward compatibility for it's NGSCB ( Next Generation Secure Computing Base ) DRM ( Denial of Rights Mechanism ) platform.

Just as Microsoft's XP backward Win9x compatability opens up many locally exploitable API to gain SystemLocal privilege access, to the point where many programs need Adminstrator privilege to run, existing XP and win2k software would open up too many opportunities for helpfull hacker to bypass Microsoft's NGSCB DRM mechanisms.

Microsofts all too obvious solution is to provide a "Virtual" PC mode, running a modified XP and WinME, with the NGSCB providing virtual filesystems and hardware access. All, access of course, with the NGSCB DRM scanning and control.

Where do you want to go tomorrow?

I feel a bit more secure with one of the largest companies in the world backing up my software than some college kids working out of their dorms.

Your point would seem to make sense, except Microsoft is just as likely to decide that a product does not make them enough money, and discontinue it. When they do that, you have no recourse. If you were using OSS then you can hire your own guy to maintain or improve it. If your using open formats, then you could just switch programs an not think twice about it.

Examples: ListBot IE for Mac Windows 98/NT

So, having said that, doesn't it make sense that the government should mandate open formats so that they're protected from the OSS coder losing his broadband and MS locking them in? If MS Office really does the job the best, then they should not be afraid to use an open documented format. This goes for any product.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/11/29/tech/mai n531230.shtml
Dec. 3, 2002: West Virginia will join Massachusetts as the only states to continue the courtroom antitrust battle against Microsoft Corp., pressing a U.S. appeals court to reconsider tougher sanctions against the world's largest software company.

A pro-Microsoft group, the Washington-based Citizens Against Government Waste, quickly attacked West Virginia's decision as improper given that state's economic conditions. The group said the state faces a $200 million deficit and teachers have been warned they may not receive raises next year.

"The taxpayers of West Virginia have every right to question the attorney general's priorities," said the group's president, Tom Schatz. "What is Darrell McGraw thinking by using scarce tax dollars to pursue costly litigation? This appeal is unrealistic, imprudent and irrational."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/11/29/tech/mai n531230.shtml
June 28, 2001: an appellate court's decision to overturn the order to split Microsoft in two

Citizens Against Government Waste, though, took a position much closer to Microsoft. "This decision marks a return to rational antitrust jurisprudence and is a victory for taxpayers, investors, and the entire information economy," CAGW President Tom Schatz said in a statement.

http://news.com.com/2100-1001_3-269198.html

Conservative organizations will always choose industry self regulation over government regulation, even if it's a monopoly.

If the anti-virus software were running on a mail gateway or file server running Linux or BSD with Windows clients, then I would still want some form of anti-virus protection or filtering on the server.

Remember that you need to secure your perimeter as well (which is now something that Microsoft is starting to pick up) as your internal systems.

Finally, a large government has adopted this kind of standard.

The Korean decision to move to open source was likely motivated by last week's surprise decision by NTT to migrate its server setup from Solaris to Linux and to aggressively develop Linux. NTT joined the Open Source Development Laboratory to improve Linux code, according to "NTT Mulls Joining Global Consortium For Linux Development".

Despite all the racist Korean hatred against the Japanese, the Koreans habitually emulate the Japanese. For example, all the Korean chaebols like Samsung are duplicates of the conglomerates that operated in pre-WWII Japan. Samsung emulates most of the technological trends of its Japanese competitors. Further, NTT commands wide respect in Korea itself, and its decision to support Linux certainly spurred the Koreans to follow suit.

The only losers in this whole affair are Microsoft and, of course, Sun Microsystems. As a company, Sun Microsystems may not survive past 2005, given that it is now expected to lose about $1 billion in FY2004. (reference: "Sun warns of hefty loss")

On a side note, the Koreans supporting Linux is good news for democracy in Korea. Korea has been a totalitarian dictatorship up until about 10 years ago; Korea still has the largest and best equipped military force in Asia. Since Linux is open-source, it would be impossible for the Korean government (or any other government, for that matter) to arbitrarily stick a piece of spy software into Linux to monitor its citizens.

Hopefully, the Koreans will abandon that conspiratory project with the Chinese to develop an independent operating system (OS) that is incompatible with Linux. (reference: "Asian trio to replace Windows") Such an OS would be a convenient place for the Chinese (including the Taiwanese and Hong Kongers) to stick a piece of spy software to monitor its citizens.

... from the desk of the reporter

Finally, a large government has adopted this kind of standard.

The Korean decision to move to open source was likely motivated by last week's surprise decision by NTT to migrate its server setup from Solaris to Linux and to aggressively develop Linux. NTT joined the Open Source Development Laboratory to improve Linux code, according to "NTT Mulls Joining Global Consortium For Linux Development".

Despite all the racist Korean hatred against the Japanese, the Koreans habitually emulate the Japanese. For example, all the Korean chaebols like Samsung are duplicates of the conglomerates that operated in pre-WWII Japan. Samsung emulates most of the technological trends of its Japanese competitors. Further, NTT commands wide respect in Korea itself, and its decision to support Linux certainly spurred the Koreans to follow suit.

The only losers in this whole affair are Microsoft and, of course, Sun Microsystems. As a company, Sun Microsystems may not survive past 2005, given that it is now expected to lose about $1 billion in FY2004. (reference: "Sun warns of hefty loss")

On a side note, the Koreans supporting Linux is good news for democracy in Korea. Korea has been a totalitarian dictatorship up until about 10 years ago; Korea still has the largest and best equipped military force in Asia. Since Linux is open-source, it would be impossible for the Korean government (or any other government, for that matter) to arbitrarily stick a piece of spy software into Linux to monitor its citizens.

Hopefully, the Koreans will abandon that conspiratory project with the Chinese to develop an independent operating system (OS) that is incompatible with Linux. (reference: "Asian trio to replace Windows") Such an OS would be a convenient place for the Chinese (including the Taiwanese and Hong Kongers) to stick a piece of spy software to monitor its citizens.

... from the desk of the reporter

OK, thanks for your contribution to /. misinformation.

MS has used considerable amounts of BSD code in the past, and still does so, for a recent example(last week) see:
http://www.deadly.org/article.php3?sid=20030927090 008

You can also just do a strings of the ftp command on windows, for more details:
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=BSD%20Cod e%20in%20Windows

The original windows TCP/IP stack was lifted directly from BSD too... and I'm sure there are many other examples that we will never know of.

Oh, and there was zlib too, because when a hole was found in zlib MS Office and quite a few other MS products had to be patched:
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-860328.html

They have even publicly said that they think the BSD license is great, obviously as long as others use it and they can take advantage of it, I can't recall MS ever releasing anything under the BSD or any other open source license(no, "shared source" is _not_ open source).

Still, as Theo says, if MS uses BSD/public-domain code it's great, that is the point of the BSD license, to improve the sorry state of the software quality in our world, if MS uses BSD code to make their software suck less, great that is what people that releases code under the BSD license want, to make software suck less, not to push any stupid political agenda.

Best wishes

\\Uriel

The documentary Revolution OS explores the human side of the open source and free software movements, illuminating the behind-the-scenes story of the hackers and programmers rebelling against the corporate machine.

This 90-minute film begins with Richard Stallman's quest to create a free operating system. It then follows the movement through its two-decades-long evolution in interviews with Stallman, Linus Torvalds (creator of the open-source operating system Linux), Eric Raymond (author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar), Bruce Perens (author of the Open Source Definition), Brian Behlendorf (leader of the Apache Web server project), Michael Tiemann (founder of the first open source company) and Larry Augustin (founder of VA Linux Systems). Revolution OS also depicts the culture of the open source movement by documenting the Installfest parties where people can bring their computers to get free, expert Linux tech support; and the Refund Day protest marches, where Linux users demand reimbursement of the extra fees that get tacked onto the purchase price of new computers for pre-installed Microsoft applications.

Didn't even stop to think about the new Sinbad movie from Dreamworks either. Or IBM's General Parallel File System (GPFS) Sorry FYI

Linux Storms Hollywood

Linux in Hollywood a Star is Born

Yahoo (perhaps you've heard of it) is not exactly a small time operation.
They studied memory usage, stability and load and came to the conclusion that PHP was the right tool for the job.
Your advice is completely worthless.

On CNET News

"You mean it's not enough to make sure it works in IE6 on Windows XP?? I wish more web 'developers' were concerned with standards."

Zdnet has a story about Texas passing a "web standards law" here

From the article:
"proposed amendment to 201.12 which appeared in the November 17, 2000 Texas Register.
(b) All state agencies will adhere to the following: (1) As of July 1, 2000, the home page of all state Web sites, and any new or changed key public entry points, shall meet the definition of a generally accessible Internet site and the following guidelines:"

The vid of Bradley vs. Gates. Hilarious!

You can see the video here. My apologies for the crappy news.com link.

Priceless

Here's one that has some more quotes from Dr. Bradley about inventing Ctrl-Alt-Del, as well as interviews with others on the team that invented the first IBM PC.

Googling on his name along with "history of IBM PC" yields other good tidbits.

You're completely wrong. Their spokewoman stated that "We're open and interested in talking with all providers that share our common goal of opening the IM community in a seamless, convenient and secure manner."
(see this news.com.com article).

Cnet Article

Microsoft has demanded that Linux seller Lindows.com take down a Web site that offers to process customer claims from the settlement of a California class-action suit against the software giant.

In a letter sent to the Linux seller on Friday and reprinted in a Lindows announcement Monday, attorney Robert Rosenfeld said Lindows' MSfreePC site includes false and misleading information and encourages filing of fraudulent claims. It demands that Lindows take down the site by noon Monday or face legal action by Microsoft.

Lindows announced the MSfreePC service earlier this month, offering to file claims on behalf of current and former California residents who qualify for proceeds from the $1.1 billion settlement of a class-action suit claiming Microsoft overcharged for its Windows operating system. People who submit a valid claim through the Lindows site receive an immediate credit in the amount of their anticipated settlement, good for the purchase of Lindows software or hardware.

The first 10,000 people to submit claims will also get a free WebStation, the stripped-down network PC the company introduced earlier this year.

Lindows CEO Michael Robertson said he wanted to make it as easy as possible for people to claim settlement awards, which range from $5 to $29. If few eligible consumers go through the claims process, Microsoft could pay out considerably less than the maximum $1.1 billion it agreed to.

But the Lindows service won't result in any valid claims, according to Rosenfeld, because it fails to meet several requirements detailed in the settlement. For starters, claims must be submitted with an actual signature.

"Claim forms submitted through the www.msfreepc.com Web site will be invalid because they will not be signed," according to his letter. "Instead, these claims will include only the claimant's typed name (called a 'digital signature' by the Web site), which is invalid under the settlement agreement."

The settlement agreement also specifically prohibits third parties from filing claims on the behalf of others, according to the letter, which alleges that the Lindows service encourages the filing of fraudulent claims by not presenting claimants with the terms of the settlement or adequately quizzing them on qualifying purchases.

"The Web site's clear objective is to encourage claimants to maximize the amount of their claims rather than submit claims that accurately reflect purchases made or benefits to which they are entitled," the letter said.

A Lindows representative said early Monday that the company was still reviewing the letter. The MSfreePC site was still operating as of Monday morning. Microsoft representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Lindows is no stranger to Microsoft lawyers. The software giant sued the company shortly after Robertson formed it, claiming the name infringes on Microsoft's Windows trademark. That case is set to go to trial in December.

Great article at http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-5083087.html dealing with the issue a little more in depth than the listed ones.

This doesn't sound that amazing. What's newsworthy about this?

This.

It's not just individual application updates. It's groupware version management. Try having five different people in a team working on a file that's going to be used for both print and web with Adobe's current suite of apps. It's a nightmare. If things work the way they describe it in the above article, seamlessly letting all members of a team work on the same file, this upgrade will be a godsend.

Don't forget, graphic design is not just freelancers working on small projects from home, or l33td00dz who just want the latest "professional" program to "design" wallpapers for deskmod.com. It's also part of every business out there, and in the corporate world it's generally teams of people working on the same documents. This upgrade should hopefully finally bring Adobe's products in line with that reality.

They get paid regardless.

Where do you get that idea? The lawyers SCO has attacking IBM are on contingency. That means no payday unless they win.

(Now that SCO has multiple lawsuits going, prehaps some of their addition lawyers will be on a more fixed payplan)

Was Yahoo not one of the founding members of the IMUnified group, whose sole purpose was to unify with goliaths such as MSFT to fight the tyranny of AOL? Aforementioned tyranny being comprised of AOL blocking outise clients from accessing their users.

What goes around comes around. Out of protest I am planning to use my AOL IM exclusively indefinitely unitil this is solved.

Starting with a work-related mandate to use Yahoo's IM service, I've since become quite a "Sticky" Yahoo visitor. My calendar is linked with their service, I forward a number of mail addresses there - I generate them money!

How, you ask? I am given, at the least (counting calendar, email, and news) three opportunities per visit to interact with Yahoo's advertisers and sponsors. This is a direct result of being a Yahoo IM user, and discovering how their other services integrated with their messaging client. While I cannot comment on MSN, and I don't dream of endorsing AOL for myriad reasons, I feel that Yahoo's services were robust enough to keep a technically demanding user such as myself attracted to the brand. In interacting with memebers of Yahoo's chat community, it seems to be the case that moderate to heavy users of it's chat/IM service also quickly adopt other Yahoo services. This equates to more unique pageviews per day from IM/chat users than off-the-street users and perusers. Yahoo IM users, on average, tend to be loyal out of necessity - not necessity becasue they are in any way indentured to format, design or interoperability to Yahoo, but becasue things "just work."

This move, to isolate IM users who may be using a different client (is it even reasonable to assume users will be happy with just one?) services is tragic. Yahoo has clearly missed the point that IM users are not IM users alone, but rather comprise some of the best audiences for exposure to their ads, and therefore, a direct path to revenues.

This move, to block users who've already made a conscious choice to use other Yahoo services is a faux pas, to say the least.

Check this story out from new.com.com.

Jumping to the conclusion that their intent is to block 3rd party clients is just wrong, according to this.

It sounds reasonable to occasionally force an upgrade, particularly in the interest of protecting privacy.

Amazon already bought an e-commerce search company for over $100 Million.

And boy, were they excited:

"PlanetAll is the most innovative use of the Internet I've seen," said Amazon's founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. "It's simply a breakthrough in doing something as fundamental and important as staying in touch."

"This is a significant opportunity for all of us at Junglee to extend our technology well beyond our current base," said Ram Shriram, president and COO of Junglee. "With Amazon.com, we can address the larger challenges of e-commerce sooner--and on a broader scale--than we could have done alone."

I guess the technology Amazon obtained for "equity valued at approximately $280 million" has gone to good use. Hard to tell, though, since both partners' websites have gone up in smoke. I wonder if Amazon will even bother to renew the domains, which expire in May and October 2004?

For some reason, I don't see much of a future for the A9 project anymore -- as if I ever really did...

Amazon already bought an e-commerce search company for over $100 Million.

Feels like a dup from '98. :-)

The link now goes to their 404 error page ... What kind of pull does @stake have with C|Net news to make that happen?

If you are going to start a conspiracy theory, at least make one that stands up to a little bit of reason. Or not so easily discoverable by the public.

frob

Darl McBride may be one. But what most upsets me is David Boies, the bigshot lawyer behind SCO, who has turned into one himself. And I quote from this article:

Boies also represented the federal government in its antitrust case against Microsoft, Al Gore in his attempt to win a favorable Florida ruling in the 2000 presidential election, and Napster in its fight to defend its online music-swapping business.

I'm fine with the fact that you were a turd all your life and show it (Darl), but if you weren't and turned to the dark side (David Boies), I have a harder time accepting it.

IBM has worked long and hard to prove it's a friend of the open-source community.

• Gang-like tagging of city property
• Large, highly visible donations of software and cash into open source community projects

Because IBM thinks this community is influential, they guide their actions to appeal to them.

Defending the GPL is a great way to appeal to them -- even better than spraypainting grafiti on cities.

IBM has worked long and hard to prove it's a friend of the open-source community.

• Gang-like tagging of city property
• Large, highly visible donations of software and cash into open source community projects

Because IBM thinks this community is influential, they guide their actions to appeal to them.

Defending the GPL is a great way to appeal to them -- even better than spraypainting grafiti on cities.

He put his company and title in the paper. If he did not clear that with his company before publishing this paper, @stake has every reason to fire him.

Ok... the fact that he held that position with that company still remains fact. In future papers he could have a bio blurb that claims "Former CTO of @stake" - put it on everything, if they try to sue for the use of their name and trademark they're likely to lose.

Even in his current incarnation, it is still fact that he was the CTO of @stake at the time of writing that. If people derive credibility from that title, and hold it against the company for which he works, they have to be careful. It really is a matter of fact and if @stake doesn't like that, well... I don't know what to tell 'em.

"...in 2001, Michael Dell told BusinessWeek that Apple should liquidate all of thir assets and close down shop."

Further, NTT joining the OSDL is extremely bad news for Sun Microsystems. NTT currently uses Solaris to run its group servers, but NTT is clearly committed to migrating all its servers from Solaris to Linux. NTT is the beginning of the Linux avalanche that will lock Sun computer systems out of the telecommunications market. (reference: " NTT Mulls Joining Global Consortium For Linux Development")

... from the desk of the reporter

Finally, a motherboard that I can fit in a lunch box. Add in a micro drive, a mini-pci wireless card, and a usb gps and I'll finally have the warlunching rig I've always wanted. Heck, I'll even have room left over for a sandwich (which will no doubt be kept toasty warm).

"Since when is taking a photograph or replica of a statue the same as using a crane to hoist it away?"

Security patch support is until December of next year. I couldn't find the the link to the actually EOL roadmap but this is just a good.

ZDNET atticle

I know this because I'm in the process of figuring out what to do. I'm checking out how well samba can replace the file servers. I have a test print spooler setup and it kicks ass.

• Imagimath
• MathU
• PowerOne
• And even a few freeware programs.

For those bots who have blocked it out from their memory, Samba is the Open-Source product that had a root level exploit in its code that went undetected(?) for eight years.

Open-Source secure...lol.

So, you're taking the RIAA's advice from this article, then?
"Really the best defense here is to simply stop distributing music files or quit sharing them online and then you won't have to worry about being a target for litigation."
In other words, it's ok to distribute music files, as long as you don't do it online?

All clues point to Computer Associates as the unnamed Fortune 500 company.

If you match this article's date with the date of SCO's announcement of a fortune 500 sell it all adds up.
news.com article: CA settles Canopy contract suit

I'm sure Canopy cut them a good deal in order to claim they had a fortune 500 company signing up for SCOSource.

"This is a decision based upon consumer experiences, child protection and our strategic investment to build up MSN Messenger,"

Could this be the beginning for the push to 3 degrees?

One would have thought the stream of nationally-announced embarrasments would have encouraged the RIAA to do more thorough investigations of these situations before launching into lawsuits.