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More Details of MS/DOJ Deal
There are various news articles out at most major news sites, but they're all based on this press release from the Department of Justice. The actual terms of the settlement will probably become public shortly, so I wouldn't spend a whole lot of time trying to dissect this press release. Just read it for generalities. In sum: for this whole multi-year case, which you will recall started when Microsoft refused to obey its earlier behavior restrictions, we have more behavior restrictions, lasting only five years. And if MS doesn't obey those, they'll ... be in effect longer. Update: 11/02 15:07 GMT by M : Here are the promised terms of the settlement. Now you can dissect them. :) Update: 11/02 15:53 GMT by M : The states are refusing to sign on.
from the press release :
...
...
Disclosure of Middleware Interfaces- Microsoft will be required to provide software developers with the interfaces used by Microsoft's middleware to interoperate with the operating system. This will allow developers to create competing products that will emulate Microsoft's integrated functions.
Disclosure of Server Protocols- The Final Judgment also ensures that other non-Microsoft server software can interoperate with Windows on a PC the same way that Microsoft servers do. This is important because it ensures that Microsoft cannot use its PC operating system monopoly to restrict competition among servers. Server support applications, like middleware, could threaten Microsoft's monopoly.
Freedom to Install Middleware Software--Computer manufacturers and consumers will be free to substitute competing middleware software on Microsoft's operating system.
Ban on Retaliation--Microsoft will be prohibited from retaliating against computer manufacturers or software developers for supporting or developing certain competing software. This provision will ensure that computer manufacturers and software developers are able to take full advantage of the options granted to them under the proposed Final Judgment without fear of reprisal.
I must say this looks VERY promising
I can't wait to see the microsoft docs for their protocols
Ow, my wrist.
324006
Ban on Exclusive Agreements
According to the text, this should stop the very restrictive OEM-contracts that PC-manufacturers have with MS. Now they are not allowed to deliver a dual-boot system, their contracts specifically forbids them to install anything but MS Operating Systems.
This is becoming more and more of a myth.
Whilst UK cops are generally unarmed, armed police are only a radio call away. In airports and other high security locations police are routinely armed.
Actually it's "stop or we'll beat you over the head with a truncheon and if that doesn't work our armed response unit will come round and shoot you". Nowadays you average UK copper is likely to be wearing Kevlar body armour and truncheons exactly the same in style to US cops.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
Netscape 6.2 just came out. And it is nice.
read the bottom section.
Licensing of Intellectual Property- Microsoft also will be required to license any intellectual property to computer manufacturers and software developers necessary for them to exercise their rights under the proposed Final Judgment, including for example, using the middleware protocols disclosed by Microsoft to interoperate with the operating system. This enforcement measure will ensure that intellectual property rights do not interfere with the rights and obligations under the proposed Final Judgment.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
A 'consumer level loss of interest?' As in, people migrating off Microsoft software? Yeah. Sure.
Mark my words: within five years, Microsoft will already have ignored and broken the terms of today's settlement. They'll already be hard at work tying products together and locking customers into Microsoft-only solutions, leveraging Windows and IE and the MSN messager off each other to make sure no customers leave the fold.
Yes, the government will quickly get wise to this new illegal activity -- and it'll result in a new court case, which will take another four years to reach a settlement, which will give Microsoft a completely new set of restrictions to ignore.
I wonder if Bill Gates's hand is red from being slapped by the government so often.
There's a long history of companies crushed by Microsoft's outrageously illegal practices, from Digital Research (the FUD campaign against DR-DOS in the early 1980's) to Stack (outright stealing of their compression code in the early 1990's) to Netscape ('cutting off their air supply' by cloning every Netscape product and giving them away for free). In the courtroom, they've falsified evidence (the famous videotape with the disappearing icons) and even destroyed evidence (deleted incriminating email in a case against Caldera) and they've always gotten away with it. With today's settlement, I wonder who Microsoft's next victim will be.
What's the use of trying to bring an innovative new product to market any more, knowing that Microsoft will just steal it from you after you R&D it and create its user base?
Hauled up from a post below, I shall now show you why this judgement means exactly squat:
In III.A: Nothing in this provision shall prohibit Microsoft from enforcing any provision of any license with any OEM or any intellectual property right that is not inconsistent with this Final Judgment.
III.J: J. No provision of this Final Judgment shall... Require Microsoft to document, disclose or license to third parties: (a) portions of APIs or Documentation or portions or layers of Communications Protocols the disclosure of which would compromise the security of anti-piracy, anti-virus, software licensing, digital rights management, encryption or authentication systems, including without limitation, keys, authorization tokens or enforcement criteria
Gee, Sun, Apple and GNU/Linux guys, we'd love to give you access to all of our specs, but you see, we're so security conscious that we have security protocols at all levels. Yes we do. Or software licensing. Or digital rights management, or encryption or authentication protocols. In fact, we can't find a single source file that's free of at least one of these. So you can look, but then we'll have to kill you.
And we'd like nothing more than to let you OEM guys unininstall components, but, you see, it turns out that anything you want to unbundle will be, I mean, is central to our security and content protection system. Yes, that's right. Instant messenging, browsers, media players, you name it, it's vital.
You don't think so? OK, back to court. Is a three year case OK with you? That should give us time to get another OS out, make your case irrelevant, and insure that the penalty is another (snigger) conduct (giggle) remedy.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
If this settlement is approved, can we (the people) sue the DOJ for legal malpractice?
The DOJ is supposed to represent the people, right?
I did a stock lookup on MSFT and found this chronology antitrust activities. Seems a long time, eh?
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
(not!) Apparently operating and promoting a criminal monopoly in the United States does not incur much penalty.
The terms of this antitrust agreement (at C|Net) stike me as more of a blowjob than a slap on the wrist. The terms of this agreement do nothing to address the core issues of punitive damages in this "penalty" phase of the trial. Hasn't Microsoft been found to be an illegal monopolist? And even so there is no penalty forthcoming, only what can be described as minor conduct tweaking? Wow.
This deal is also weaker than what was on the table before MS was found guilty. Armed with a 7-0 judge appeals ruling that MS is an illegal monopolist, the DoJ now settles for something even less? [sarcasm] If I didn't have such a high confidence in the current administration, I'd have thought they'd been paid off or something; good thing we know that that can't be the case. [/sarcasm]
We can all be sure that more of the same will now continue. After all, were not similar minor conduct remedies ordered by courts in 1994, etc, only to be ignored by Microsoft? Now these conduct remedies will be... ignored again! And with that scary extension... yet again! Justice prevails in America. So do the undead apparently.
The idea, as is sometimes heard now, that the DoJ should go easy on Microsoft because of the current financial uncertainty does not hold water either. So we should suspend penalties to laws, just so that the economic boat doesn't get rocked? Even if the previous penalty of breaking the company into 2 was applied, this would not substantially change the immediate economic situation. Everyone would still use Windows, it would still come with your Dell, it would still be the de facto stadard for years; it's just that slowly other system choices would gradually appear. How would this be an economic calamity? Even this breakup scenario is now unlikely, after the DoJ unilaterally pulled the IE bundling claim off the table (for what reason, no-one really knows).
I am apalled at what amounts to a near toal capitulation by the Bush Administration's new DoJ attorneys. Mostly, it is the lack of justice that bothers me. I'm glad I'm not a US citizen otherwise I'd also be angry about the millions of taxpayers dollars put into this case over many years, and not even the most minor financial penalty to cover the costs of the case recuperated. If they want any kind of justice, Americans should write their state representatives and attorneys general to make known they do not support the Sates' signing on to this toothless deal. Barring that, it's up to the European Union to reign in the beast now.