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Microsoft, DoJ Reach Tentative Settlement

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the sent-to-bed-without-dinner dept.

JeffMagnus writes: "MSNBC is reporting that the tentative settlement between Microsoft and the DoJ calls for a five-year consent decree between the government and Microsoft governing the company's conduct. A three person panel of independent experts will be created to review the companys' future activity." The New York Times appears to be the original source for the settlement stories; there's also an AP article.

8 of 595 comments (clear)

  1. Trick or Treat by Dracos · · Score: 2, Informative

    How telling is it that this happens on Halloween, under a full moon?

  2. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  3. Re:fool me once... by Merk · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually they're nowhere near the richest company in the world. They're number 201 on the fortune 500 list.

    With revenues of only $22,956 million a year, they're a tenth the size of Exxon Mobil, Wal-Mart or GM. The top 3 on the list.

  4. Re:States Carry On by innocent_white_lamb · · Score: 2, Informative

    One of the articles linked here states that there would be a procedural problem if the states attempted to carry on after the judge has approved the settlement. So there is no guarantee that it would proceed even if the states wanted it to.

    You can bet that MS would work that angle for everything it was worth if the situation arose. They don't need to worrry about losing or even about attempting to win if they can manage the situation such that they can stay out of court in the first place. "Business as usual" then.

    --
    If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
  5. Re:Office formats? by Osty · · Score: 2, Informative

    I can't really tell if this will make it easier for people to get information about the S Office file formats.

    In my mind, when the various open source office suites can read and write MS Office fluently, then there will be a real choice on the business desktop. Open Office can hold a conversation, but it isn't fluent.



    See, the anti-trust trial was not dealing with Microsoft Office, or their perceived monopoly in the office suite application space. Therefore, any remedy addressing Office would have been extraneous to the suit, and would not have been accepted by Microsoft. Furthermore, ther DOJ and Attorneys General know this, and thus would not have suggested such a remedy in the first place. The compromise addresses Windows (via OEM licensing practices and bundling of things like Media Player) and IE (opening of some of the source code, supposedly) because those were the two things the suit was concerned with (Microsoft leveraging its Windows monopoly via OEMs to push their internet browser to kill Netscape).


    Having a monopoly IS NOT WRONG. It's not bad, and it's NOT illegal. Abusing it is. And when such an abuse occurs, you address that abuse, and that abuse only. It doesn't matter whether Microsoft happens to have a monopoly in the office suite space, because that had no bearing on the browser market. Period. Case closed.

  6. CALL YOUR ATTORNEY GENERAL!! by furry_wookie · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you don't think letting Microsoft get totally off for free, or the same thing they were let off with in 1995 which did zero good then,

    I suggest you call your own state attorney general and tell them not to give into this federal get-out-of-jail free card...

    CALL THEM THURSDAY MORNING FIRST THING AND TELL THEM!!

    Here is a site with the phone numbers for most all of the states aj offices..
    http://www.naag.org/about/aglist.cfm

    Here are the 18 states still involved as complantants in the case..

    Connecticut, Iowa and New York have generally been viewed as the three states championing the case. Also involved are California, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.

    Also call California and New York because they have the most power and have been the 2 most outspoken against the results of this case so far..and call IOWA because Tom Miller the IOWA AG is the spokesman for all the 18 states involved.

    --
    -- Given enough time and money, Microsoft will eventualy invent UNIX.
  7. Re:And the Panel will be: by Paul+Komarek · · Score: 5, Informative

    I don't trust Jobs, and really wouldn't want Larry Ellison on this panel (or Michael Dell, or Mike Cappelas, or ...). However, I have an idea of my own for one member of the panel: Monte Davidoff.

    Monte was one of the three authors of the famous Altair Basic that Gates and Allen get credit for. Monte evidently wrote the math routines. He's now a software and systems consultant (Alluvial Software). It appears he does works on several platforms, including Multics. ;-) Furthermore, Monte actually finished his mathematics degree at Harvard, unlike Bill Gates.

    He knows the business, and more importantly, he knows Bill.

    -Paul Komarek

  8. Re:Clinton Administration... by daniel_isaacs · · Score: 5, Informative
    Microsoft is an American company employing taxpayers and paying vast corporate taxes.

    Actually, MS didn't pay any taxes. I did, but they didn't.

    --
    - Dan I.