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Sendo vs. Microsoft: The Truth Comes Out
igotmybfg writes "The Register has a story which includes many details about the phone maker's Texas suit against the software giant. It seems that Microsoft had much more to gain from letting its partner fail than helping it to succeed: in the event of a bankruptcy, Microsoft acquired all of Sendo's intellectual property related to the z100 Stinger SmartPhone, and was then free to do whatever it wanted, which in this case turned out to be going behind Sendo's back and making a deal with Orange SPA." Read our original article about this to get more background information.
Microsoft a company of back-stabbing money-grubbers.
Film at 11.
S)tandard O)perating P)rocedure for Microsoft
They probably have a manual outlining their Borg like business plans:)
I mean, if I would have THIS clause in the contract, it is NORMAL to assume that MS would play hardball to then gain all the rights. This is to be expected. Unless they crossed some lines then (which to proove will be the problem of Sendo), Sendo got what they deserved - for neglecting the reality of harsh businesses practices.
So any time there is an article about Microsoft on Slashdot, I am to assume they did something wrong.
They need an FAQ for this stuff.
http://use.perl.org
If these allegations are true it could have very serious consequences for Microsoft. That's pretty obvious. But one possibility is that companies will simply refuse to get into similar deals with them in future.
As the article notes, it is not as if MS have been able to produce the goods even now for the Orange phone. A handset that dials your friends' names as opposed to their numbers, anyone?
I'm astounded. I truly can't believe a household name such as Microsoft would be involved in underhand business practises.
Seriously, the law makers in the US should probably look into Microsoft being a monopoly....don't they have these things called antitrust laws too?
And Bill Gates looks like such a nice guy. How can he be evil when he wants to save children in third world countries from AIDS?
When you walk into the lion's den, you need more than a g-string on. To have put themselves in a position where M$ could grab Sendo's intellectual property by not giving them anything is stupid.
That said, dealing in bad faith is something that is tortous. I hope Sendo recovers the stars the moon and the sky from these bastards.
Only summer comes, and the code isn't ready. It isn't ready in the autumn, either, and this starts to play hell with Sendo's budgets. December rolls round, and according to Sendo, bugfixes that carriers have requested are being refused by Microsoft. Sendo is in a cash crisis, and a call to VCs is spurned. So Sendo asks Microsoft for a further cash injection, which is declined:
"Microsoft refused with the full knowledge that this refusal would push Sendo to insolvency", claims Sendo in the filing.
This sounds an awful like the Mafia. Take over a business. Milk the shit out of it. Keep saying you will take care of it. Burn the damn place down when it fails (as if you cared in the first place).
Watching the free market in action is like watching a lion rip apart a gazelle on animal planet.
woohoo!
In MS's defense, there is no (nor should there be any) law against getting into really sweetheart deals at the expense of the other party. If I see an antique on eBay selling for $5 that I know to be incredibly valuable, I should buy it -- I'm under no imaginable obligation to contact the seller and let him know he's an idiot.
And so it appears in this case: whoever was making decisions at Sendo really, really screwed up. They gave MS the power to destroy them, then gave them huge incentive to do so.
That's life.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
I mean, if I would have THIS clause in the contract, it is NORMAL to assume that MS would play hardball to then gain all the rights. This is to be expected. Unless they crossed some lines then (which to proove will be the problem of Sendo), Sendo got what they deserved - for neglecting the reality of harsh businesses practices.
This part doesn't suprise me much, having read up on the history of Microsoft's dealings with its 'partners' over the years.
What gets me is that this sequence of events started back in 2001, at the time that Judge Jackson was throwing the book at Microsoft for, amongst other misdemeanours, doing the very same thing they were evidently planning on doing to Sendo!
Even if Sendo's case falls flat, it will have served to make Microsoft's circle of friends even smaller. What more proof could you ask for to show that the people in charge of Microsoft have not learned to play fair?
-MT.
1. Profit. 2. Profit???? 3. Profit.
if Sendo engineers can actually integrate onto a Series 60 platform.
Just because the OS can't do what you need, then just bypass it. A classic example of this is SIM Locking to a particular network, or group of networks. The SDK (Pocket PC 2002 and Smartphone) doesn't support this. Sendo complain, HTC, MiTac, Samsung, and Compal work around it (to varying degrees of success).
Emphasis mine. I really don't think I have to add anything to this quote. ;)
Do not taunt Happy-Fun Ball
I knew about this months ago - no I don't work for Sendo, Microsoft or any subsiduaries or affiliates.
I kept telling people but all they said was 'well that's not the way we've heard it'. Eventually the truth appears and it is even worse than was origionally described to me, and that made my toes curl !!! (I believe there may be even more to come out yet.)
But this is how M$ has done business for a long time. What really boggles my mind is that people still queue up to do business with M$. They must know that if what they have is slightly inovative or 'required' by M$ they are going to get screwed over !
Don't believe this nonsense. For example Microsoft would NEVER, screw over Miguel de Icaza and the MONO effort. Trust them. If Microsoft says they support the MONO effort, we can take them at their word. They are people of high integrity and whatever they say, they mean. They would never lead others along the garden path, with every intention of crushing them later on.
+5 Sarcasm.
With all these civil cases going on, could they shape MS's behavior more than the antitrust trial?
.... but then I think about their huge pile of money, and the idea seems laughable.
I could see a future where microsoft is afraid to do the "bad things" they like to do for fear of lawsuits
And what ever happened to the EU antitrust type trial?
If someone breaks into your house and steals all your stuff, is that capitalism? Didn't think so...
It is the same for companies. Like everybody else, they have to play by the rules.
If you are a company with any intellectual holdings or patents, dont ever work with Microsoft. If you only manufacture things and dont know anything about what you do then its fine.
Its nearly written in stone since before. Microsoft is a midas touch to any company with any form of knowledge that works together with them. Sendo should have realized this ofcourse. Still that doesnt in any way defends what Microsoft did wich clearly fradulent behaviour and underhanded business practises. If every company behaived like Microsoft all resources would go to fighting instead of developing good products. This kind of mafia methods needs to stop now!
In my book thats bad for me and other consumers.
HTTP/1.1 400
At this point Brown suggests that Microsoft convert the share deal into a loan, repayable in three stages, and in February (last year), Sendo agrees. Stinker still hasn't shipped, so Sendo can't sell a phone.
;)
You know, I'm beginning to think that the article writer had something to do with this
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
You sleep with the devil, you're going to get hurt. Simple as that. Next time, just let them buy you outright and walk away.
Okay, I joked about this in another post but does anyone else find it irresponsible that the StingerOS is called StinkerOS not once but twice in the article?
./
:)
This isn't bad editing, it's on purpose and only undermines the impact of the story by showing where the Register's bias is. Bad freakin' journalism. Then again, it cemented the chance this would show up on
uh.. not that the editors ever read the stories of course..
Amoeba
Do not taunt Happy-Fun Ball
you mean capitalism is no holds barred, fight to the death, winner fucks all?
When you walk into the lion's den, you need more than a g-string on.
.sig material.
Slashdot is just full of good
May we never see th
You're embarrassing me!
Let's face reality. That is the way business is exercised nowadays. I fully agree that it should not be that way, but there are certain points that enforce that behaviour. Hordes of shareholders demanding better results and higher profits every quarter are one side of the coin. Nobody believes that Microsoft will be able to keep its profits rising within the same industry for years and years. The aim is to increase the amonunt of industries and therefore increase the opportunities to push the Net Income even further above. No need to tell you that MSFT hat an income of $9.27 billion on sales of $30.0billion. Now it is your duty to show me a way to increase profits without increasing sales....
Summing up - The aim of Microsoft is to increase profits - no matter which methods they use. Time for the govt to step into the ring and show them what they are allowed to do and what they aren't.
In the Anglo Saxon legal system, a contract has equal status as the law and the contract terms are used by a judge to determine the outcome of any dispute.
However in germanic and roman law (Rest of Europe and large chunk of the world), the contract is the law, but is tempered by other laws that define that some clauses are innaceptable (an example would be the prohibition of contracts based on human organ trade).
If these 2 systems attain the same result most of the time, the germano-roman type of law gives some sort of implied guarantee to any type of contract.
One of these guarantees states that both parties in a contract should enter the agreement in good faith or else the contract is void.
The point of this diatribe is to state that when you see a bargain on a item because of an error or mischief, and you profit from it, your sales contract can be rendered void afterwards in Europe, but it can only be rendered void in the US and the UK if there is a cllause that covers that point in the contract.
So following this path of thought, if Microsoft is profiting from Sendo's poor management, they still would have had to prove that their tactics were not intended to harm their partner. That is if the trial was not in Texas!!!
My "European" 2 cents
From the article:
... I would say we're lucky this technology wasn't determined by American companies (and I basically don't care if they are European or Asean), or else we'd pay double for our phones, just for the patents to use the proprietary communication format.
To Americans, the telecom world's model of promoting growth through vertical investments (a Nokia or an Ericsson bails out the carriers) and through IP sharing (yeuch!), and promoting common standards (that's goddam Communism!), must look like a filthy and incestuous business.
Perhaps slightly unrelated (yes, mod me down), but I wonder if the cell phone market would ever have been that successful as it is now without these common standards, especially if you think that the mobile market/penetration is the largest in Scandinavia. Imagine a world where a Nokia phone could not communicate with a Sony/Ericsson, what a waste of resources would that be,
But hey, isn't that exactly what we have on the desktop?
Genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis. You can't simply say, "Today I will be brilliant."
1. Sendo sues MS.
2. MS fights for a little while.
3. Sendo gets more desperate, and settles with MS for enough money to appease their investors.
Case closed.
$8.95/mo web hosting
The easier way is that MS just says "Sorry folks, we have a patent on XXXX, and you can't use MONO any more. Oh by the way, since it is now so ingrained into Gnome, you can't use it either. Oh, and since all those Linux disks have Gnome on them, you'll have to destroy them all too."
I could see a future where microsoft is afraid to do the "bad things" they like to do for fear of lawsuits .... but then I think about their huge pile of money, and the idea seems laughable.
Their huge pile of money will only get them so far. If they start losing it by the billions, their stockholders (including Mr. Gates) will sit up and reign in the company.
$40 billion+ in the bank shouldn't be enough to avoid justice--but it should be enough to elminate a chance of appeal, or tiered payments, etc.
And what ever happened to the EU antitrust type trial?
AFAIK, it's still going on.
Microsoft acquired all of Sendo's intellectual property related to the z100 Stinger SmartPhone, and was then free to do whatever it wanted, which in this case turned out to be going behind Sendo's back and making a deal with Orange SPA
Erm... it clearly says: "[microsoft] was then free to do whatever it wanted". Which part of "was then free to do" do you all not understand? If Sendo would have had any managers with a vision and who could envision a set of concequences related to a buy out of IP by MS, this never would have happened... but no, they were eager to sell, money in the bank!...
Never underestimate the relief of true separation of Religion and State.
Seemed to be a smart choice after all..
ich bin der musikant
mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
I don't know how much truth lies in this, but when any organization becomes big enough, culture plays a big role in dictating what is allowed and what's not.
This is what capitalism is all about.
I would say, "This is what North American capitalism is all about". (Not that _I_ find anything wrong with it.)
"Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead." A. Huxley
1. Sendo sues MS.
2. MS stalls for a long, long time. Judge is too wimpy to issue an injunction.
3. Microsoft refuses to settle. Sendo goes bankrupt from the legal fees.
4. Microsoft acquires Sendo's IP as part of the SDMA.
5. (Even more) profit for MS
Capitalism is not about fucking people in the ass just to look good on the next quarterly report.
I am sure the Enron executives share your viewpoint, and wonder why they are in jail... After all, it's just doing business, isn't it?
Perhaps one day some of the Microsoft folks can join them. We can hope, at least...
Taking advantage of stupid or weak people/companies/customers/whatever is wrong, even if it *is* legal. It shouldn't be legal... One of those house-repair scammers tried to screw my grandmother (in her late 80's at the time). She did not fall victim, but others did. If she would have fell for it, would that have been OK? I see no moral difference between the small-time and big-time scammers.
Styrofoam IS biodegradable, you're just impatient!
you're going to get burned.
If you had super powers, would you use them for good, or for awesome?
Uhh.. Score 5? Someone's got an odd concept of Capitalism.
Capitalism works fine when everyone's honourable, and keeps their word, and basically plays the game. People make products and make money. Best product wins (votes=money).
MS, as usual, are breaking the rules, and pulling their own game (kill all other contenders), which isn't Capitalism.
In Capitalism, you end up with a flourishing ecosystem of companies providing a variety of competing products. Evolution selects the best.
In the MS game, you end up with one monolithic power providing what it thinks is best for people.
In fact, MS' way is more like communism than capitalism.
"To each unto their needs'..
MS decides what each person needs, and that's what they get, like it or not. It attempts to take all competition out of the arena, so, if you want an office suite, you have MS office, as MS has killed the competition.
So, really, MS is anti-capitalist.
Malk
And I don't use GNOME; just GTK apps in Widowmaker. At least Steve Jobs isn't being a prick and jerking around with the OpenStep specs.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Over the Week-end this was plastered all over the UK's Broadsheets (quality) news papers in the last few day; and not technology sections but in the Business. The damage to Microsoft's reputation for bad-faith with the 'Captains of Industry' from this episode will be profound.
There is also refuge for Sendo in UK bankruptcy laws, where Creditors have an incredible amount of power in the say of the winding up of a company. There are two forms, Administration, a private sector accountant is appointed to take over running of the business. He has absolute authority in to persue the Creditors best interests, even if the only real assets are IP, bad debts and damages. In this fails the next step is Insolvency, Government investigators from the DTI investigate why the business failed, have criminal investigative powers and can sequestrate assets of bad debtors, and prosecute offenders. If Sendo do go bust that is only the start of Microsoft problems.
IIRC Microsoft has a stake in General Magic, which developed video software for handheld devices. It was of note, a few years ago, because General Magic was down to $1 a share when Microsoft took interest. Last I looked General Magic closed September or early October and was winding down completely about December. Guess who will get their IP, as a significant debtor
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
1. Sendo sues MS.
2. MS stalls for a long, long time. Judge is too wimpy to issue an injunction.
3. Microsoft refuses to settle. Sendo goes bankrupt from the legal fees.
4. The Sendo's Creditors including the Accountants and Lawyers gain Sendo assets including the right to sue Microsoft.
5. (Even more) profit for Accountants and Lawyers
6. Microsoft now have no choice but to settle in order to cap the legal fees.
Sounds to me like capitalism is just a feel good idealist system that only works good in theory. In some magic land where people are "honorable" and "play by the rules". Monopolies are a natural part of capitalism. Evolution has selected humans as the best and now we are free to rule the earth and destory it or save it as we see fit. So really if you are comparing evolution with capitalism you see that monopoly is the natural end of the system. Sorry, a big monopoly is the end of the line jack.
the people in charge of Microsoft have not learned to play fair?
As most geeks have probably learnt the hard way; Popular bullies are rarely challenged by the authorities.
Isn't this just like your ordinary golddigger marriage? ;/
If Anna Nicole can do it.. why can't Microsoft? ;/
If we keep going the way we are we will just be another failed branch of evolution.
We don't 'see fit' to destroy the planet, we just are to stupid/greedy/unwilling to do anything about it.
No, but if you die and give someone the right to your house in your will, it's legal. :)
No, that wasn't flaimbait. Just a parable.
Sig & Below
Yuck Fou
They did the same thing to Stacker with it's disc compression software. Joint arrangement, Small Capital Investment as a sign of good faith, poached the best staff and deserted the deal after launching there own software.
They've pulled a similar stunts with Apple and games company who's name escapes me for the moment.
LOL. Bourgeois logic is always good for a laugh.
"Microsoft is anti-capitalist". hehehehhe.
Sorry what you describe is perfect competition, which is only one of several ways the market can operate under capitalism. Perfect competition requires a delicate balance and is easily destroyed.
I think you are the one with an odd concept of capitalism. Monopolies are a part of capitalism just as much as perfect competition is.
Oh ya there are no rules in capitalism. Governments may or may not impose various rules on the market but these are not a part of capitalism. So really by complaining about microsoft you are being anti-capitalist.
heheheheh.
I guess they don't require any economics classes to get a computer science degree.
I mean do you even listen to what you say?
"Kill all contenders isn't capitalism"
So if your business is putting the competition out of business you should suddenly back off and let them take some of your marketshare or something? That's completely laughable. In fact the shareholders could sue you for doing something like that.
"Evolution selects the best"
This contradicts what you just said. In order for your earlier statement to make sense evolution would have to select a bunch of less than best. Otherwise all the contenders become extinct.
Bah, why do i even bother...
remember, MS had a man on the Sendo board. MS cannot now claim to not know the situation Sendo was in. If Sendo can show that the MS man acted against the interests of Sendo he's wide open to be sued by the shareholders. If Sendo can show that the MS man acted in bad faith on behalf of MS then MS is in deep s.h.i.t.
Yeah, let's screw people over. After all, it's business.
I'll go start me up an insurance company so I can rip off little old ladies and make them pay out the ass for their medicine.
Business is not a legitimate excuse for humans screwing each other over.
-- I am. Therefore, I think!
Big companies take these kinds of risks already; it's common practice.
Middle manager - "What we are doing will likely get us sued."
Upper management - "What are the odds of us getting sued and how much do you think settling the cases out of court will cost?"
Legal department - "We'll likely be sued half a dozen times and be able to settle for about $500,000 each."
Upper management - "Alright then, that means we need to make sure we either gain enough market position out of this project to make $3 million worth it or we just need to have $6 million in net profit."
This process happens in every large company from Microsoft to GE to Ford to AT&T.
Like all magic potions and wonder drugs, fraud doesn't always work. Take Enron and especially the accounting firm that influenced some of their decisions. They're lying flat on their backs because of fraudulent behavior. Now if Enron isn't big enough in your definition, I don't know what is.
Erm... which part of "Sendo didn't go bankrupt" don't you understand? Otis, if that's your real name, do try to read the article. Microsoft was not free to do whatever they wanted because the necessary precondition to that was not met.
Bill
Upon seeing the box was too small, Schrodinger's Elephant breathed a sigh of relief.
Do not partner with Microsoft. Do not become inolved with a company that has a long, pathetic history of screwing-over anyone and everyone they even remotely deal with.
Learn, people! If you play with fire, you'll get burned! Instead, choose to deal with organizations that are friendly because they understand the concept of doing good work to stay in business (open source vendors for example).
Why bother.
What can you expect from a company that is waiting for a MS schedule to launch a product? Ok... MS can be a company run by Borgs and the like but everybody knows that MS doens't stand to a release date. If you wait for them... well, you'll miss the bus :-)
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." --Albert Einstein
Well obviously microsofts monopoly won't last 10,000 years.
So when the roaches are in charge won't they be the monopoly? eh?
"We don't 'see fit' to destroy the planet, we just are to stupid/greedy/unwilling to do anything about it."
It's not like someone else is destorying the planet and we just aren't bothering to stop them. The destruction is caused by humans. We are destroying the planet.
Anyone familiar with the term "critical path"? That is the path in the development cycle that affects all others, and ultimately the deliverablilty of the product. If you delay the critical path, you delay the product.
If you are planning a product that will determine the success of your company, you should make sure that critical path is kept in-house where it can be controlled. Sendo's management obviously didn't get this. (A better buisiness decision might have been to use an open source operating system and hire a bunch of developers to customize it for you.)
This is why many smaller broadband companies went belly up in the ".com roaring 90's". They depended on someone else (telcos and cable companies) to deliver on their critical path. That's just plain stupid.
-ted
- M$ is like a person suffering from self-injury psychosis:
http://galleryofpain.self-injury.net/
- the company will bleed until its legal department is larger and has a bigger budget than marketing, development or r&d...
- i will p*ss on its grave!
(A better buisiness decision might have been to use an open source operating system and hire a bunch of developers to customize it for you.)
Their plan was to leverage Microsoft's marketing muscle in order for their product to be successful. Open source wouldn't have achieved that.
Unfortunately for them if you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas.
I mean, really. Anyone considering a deal with MS that involves the transfer, licensing, ownership of IP to Microsoft should click their heels together three times and say:
"Spyglass, Spyglass, Spyglass."
It's not like MS hasn't been caught redhanded pulling this sort of crap before.
KFG
How this got modded up to +4 "Funny" is almost as funny as it is sad.
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
Lenin once said capitalists would sell them the rope that they will hang by. Billg says business partners will sell them the IP rights they will be driven out of business by.
If everyone is honorable and keeps their word, etc., as you imagine then any given economic system will work well whether it be capitalist or marxist. The great and abiding issue is how to yoke the baser impulses within humanity into a just, viable economic system. Quite simply, how do we encourage the honorable, and punish the thieves?
Scott
I keep hearing on /. about this thing called a Constitution which guarantees one to be innocent until proven guilty. I guess that only applies selectively according to the whims of geeks? Rights exist to protect ALL whether you agree with or even like others. I guess all the whining is really the releasing of a bunch of hot air from people with no life.
/. doesn't like Microsoft, ANY lawsuit, regardless of merits, is a good thing. Until the judge rules, neither side is guilty, PERIOD.
What did you expect IN THE FILING FROM SENDO?!?!?! "Microsoft treated us with the utmost respect, w screwed up and lost a bunch of money but we're going to use anti-Microsoft sentiment to push this case along and get a crack at the 40+ billion dollars they have sitting around just itching to be plundered by a bunch of lawyers."
The filing is Sendo's side of the case but since it's a lawsuit against Microsoft and
And it's repeated FOUR times on that page, including in the link at the bottom to "Related Stories: What sank Sendo's Stinker?" http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/28000.html which in turn repeats it in its own headline and once more below to boot!
Nope, I no longer believe this is a typo!!
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Cutting a deal with the evil one at least gets you the terms of the contract. (They may be interpretted exteremely literally, but he can't break the words.)
In this case, MS didn't even live up to their end of the contract while (allegedly) actively working to undermine their partner.
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
(Microsoft hates the "Stinker" moniker so much, that it's rebranded Stinker as "Canary" - perhaps unaware of the bird's history as a sacrificial and disposable early warning system for miners. When the Canary dies - you clear out fast).
This from the linked article, it sounds like exactly what this case should be saying to any other phone vendors (or other platforms) dealing with MS. The canary has died (though it's taking MS to court), and it's time for everyone else to clear the building.
Moderation Totals: Insightful=1, Funny=1, Total=2.
Step 1. Posted with +2 bonus
Step 2. Mod gives +1 Insightful
Step 3. Someone's feeling happy, mod's +1 Funny
And if you give someone the right to your house in your will and then they lock you inside it until you starve to death and they inherit it, that's legal?
But it was never a partnership of equals, alleges Sendo, and after promising that StinkerOS was ready in the middle of last year, Microsoft used the delays to uncover Sendo's integration secrets and carrier relationships, and then cut off their air supply, using this knowledge to promote its new sweetheart, the Orange SPV instead.
Noth American Capitalism *IS* Capitalism, dont confuse welfare states with private ownership of goods with capitalism.
A business's responsibility is to its stockholders, not its customers, not its partners or anyone else for that matter.
If anyone wants to know why American Capitalism is failing this view says it all. Customers don't mean shit. The unfortunate thing is so many people believe this bullshit that it's hard to speak otherwise.
Here is an idea. Start a _privately_ owned company and make a product and tell me again why customers don't matter. Seems that the minute the company goes public they are no longer in business to make anyone but Wall Street happy. This kind of idiotic thinking has just got to stop.
The thing about things we don't know is we often don't know we don't know them.
Midas turned things to gold with his touch. Sendo turned to ... Perhaps gorgon gaze would an appropriate classical allusion. And kiss of death would be a more modern one and perhaps more appropriate if you're comparing somebody to the mob.
s/communism/statism
The state can be left wing or right wing, i.e. comministic or fascistic, but it is all about an authoritarian structure holding an area of human interest to ransom, whether it be through outright violence or the quasi-legal dealings of bankrupting your competition through unfair contracts.
What gets me is that persons like yourself come to their defense so quickly. The same /.ers who complain about Microsoft also complain about Linux companies when they do equally "bad" things.
And furthermore, WTF are you talking about "innocent until proven guilty"? THEY HAVE BEEN PROVEN GUILTY, IN COURT, MORE THAN ONCE!
Sweet leaping Jesus, do you just ignore those facts so you can paint people who dislike Microsoft with a very broad brush?
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
What are you on? Show examples of Microsoft's behavior having had any significant consequences at all.
It just won't happen. Some judge will talk very sternly at them for a couple of hours and that'll be it.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
"in the event of a bankruptcy, Microsoft acquired all of Sendo's intellectual property related to the z100 Stinger SmartPhone, and was then free to do whatever it wanted, which in this case turned out to be going behind Sendo's back..."
blah blah blah, Microsoft sucks, blah blah blah.
I hate Microsoft jsut as much as the next guy, but it seems to me that Sendo would have signed a contract agreeing to these terms, right? And if they did, why are they complaining?
OK, I can understand if Microsoft purposely undermined them in order to gain control of their IP, but still shouldn't they have considered the bad things that can happen when signing contracts with Satan...I mean Mr. Gates? I mean really, considering recent media coverage, almost everyone knows that Microsoft doesn't play nice with it's neighbors.
I guess this is just another case of someone letting the mighty dollar cloud their judgement, and once again, they got burned.
"A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force." -William Blum
In theory, this civil case could shape MS's behavior a lot more than the antitrust case. If the claims are true, then Microsoft has dealt in bad faith. (See Ballmer's rage regarding the Sun Java contract for pretty much a definition of "bad faith".) If you are found by a court to have done this, and injured another party doing so, that party has the right to a "best effort" to be "made whole".
If a court were to decide this -- and the criteria is "preponderance of evidence" rather than "beyond a reasonable doubt" -- then Microsoft owes Sendo whatever they can convince the court they might have made had Microsoft bargained in good faith. If the court decides this is an antitrust violation as well, then any judgement is automatically tripled.
Of course, Microsoft has lots of lawyers, and has or had a boardmember on Sendo. But now Sendo becomes a very attractive lottery ticket to anyone who wants to afford them and can pay lawyers for a few years.
I guess finally history is catching up to MS.
Everyone thought the antitrust trial was where MS was going to meet up with its karma, too. Look where that got us -- a watered-down sweetheart "settlement" which does nothing to address the real problems with MS, let alone the issues presented at the antitrust trial.
If this case turns into a serious legal threat, I wonder how many bribes^H^H^H^H^H^Hdonations and contributions MS will have to make in order to get another toothless "settlement".
Jay (=
Can any honest, unbiased and Slashdot/Register editor/user please post the rebuttal from Microsoft for the same case? You know to get a balanced view, or All thing considered(TM)
/. , register & we make money by filling hatred in the minds of clueless biased readers against big & successful companies, by mostly posting one side of the story
Oh Wait a minute, this is
Haven't you learned that our legal system was bought and sold a long time ago? Microsoft will never be given any sound defeat in a US court. This very sad, but very true.
Well obviously microsofts monopoly won't last 10,000 years.
God, I hope not. I mean sheesh, Hitler only wanted 1000 years.
Microsoft, der Zehntausend Jahre Reich (sorry about the spelling, its been a while)
Why not fork?
But, anyone who actually believes Microsoft actually wants to be their "partner" in bringing "new products" to "market" is a blithering IDIOT. Microsoft isn't interested in being anyone's partner. M$ has enough money to go out and start its own mobile phone company. It's just cheaper and easier to spend $12M to steal the research and IP.
These little startups, in their eagerness to play "big company" to impress their fourbucks-going friends, will ink any deal that brings in money, because that's all they see. They don't think ahead, and don't have any idea whom their friends and enemies are. Microsoft was probably interting and rotating the knife in their backs before the ink was even dry...
Business is war.
Ask the Japanese...
Really, I want to agree with you, because Microsoft with their 85% profit margins and unbelievable concentrated power doesn't look like the result of a free market.
But I can't see anything wrong, when using my capitalist-colored glasses. They played by the rules most of the time (same as any other company). This is the goal of capitalism: to have as much capital as possible, so you can have power and control.
The question is, *how* does Microsoft manage to retain this power? Where are the folks who are willing to have, say 80% margins, or 30% margins or 5% margins? Is Linux the only way to compete with them? Why is that? Is copyright law to blame?
Is this a failure of capitalism? Are the "chicago school" economists wrong on this one (leave the monopolists alone, they'll die soon enough). What is it about the computer industry that makes it extremely difficult to switch products?
I am sure the Enron executives share your viewpoint, and wonder why they are in jail...
Umm, how many Enron execs are in jail? The last time I counted, it was zero.
sure it pays,
Now I don't know what your definition is of not working is, but if cash/assets are any measure of success i think the said "fraudsters" have done pretty well out of it don't you think ?, going to prison for 7 - 15years to come out a multi-millionaire from your embezzeled cash is hardly a failure.
How can you be so stupid as to mess with bulls and complain when you get the horns?
I guess that a word of caution should go for everybody that does business with Microsoft.
It reminds me of the deal they had with NCSA to get the source code to Mosaic. They would give NCSA a percentage of the sale price for Internet Explorer. And then, as we all know, the price tag was $0 and NCSA got nothing.
- The article says SENDO has only been in business for 2 years.
- Microsoft has to know every little thing they do that even remotely looks bad will make headline news in the trade rags.
- At the time this happened they were in bad shape in the anti-trust trial.
- They must have realized any attempt to screw over SENDO in the overly blatant way SENDO is accusing them of would backfire.
- They have 40+ BILLION dollars in cash laying around.
So, why? why? why? didn't Microsoft just buy SENDO if they needed the information so bad (as SENDO is claiming? The article states a 12 million initial investment by Microsoft and alludes to further promises of money later. For 100 or so million Microsoft could just buy SENDO, take whatever IP they needed, and at worst just resell what they don't want/need. Sure, it might cost a little more, but probably less that the legal defense they must now mount.Again, I just don't get it.
is MacroStiff a TX corp? the plaintiff? what gives?
Comp 101
Evolution actually requires competition to improve. MS doesn't even want to allow anything else in the arena whatsoever. Given that it's the only player in the field, you end up with stagnation, and an end to evolution. This in turn leads to degredation and decay. :)
MS, curerrently is definately a false maximum fitness speaking, and it's using non-evolutionary measures (read lawyers) to tip the balance, to prevent evolution taking it's course.
A large part of the reason MS still has it's dominance is keeping everyone else running scared of it's Lawyers. Oh, and it's political lobbying. None of which is Capitalism, more like Corruption.
Please don't mistake the two.
Capitalism is about operating in a free market. Now, a Free Market is defined as a market operating with little to no restriction on supply and demand.
Take the new licensing agreement for example. You do things when MS want you to, or you pay WAY more. This creates an artificial demand (thus, no longer a free market for that product, unless you have alternatives).
As for alternatives, MS are definately unhappy about people using the methods for reading their data, or interoperation with their OS. This restricts supply of products rather badly, if you're already in MS territory (unless you want to spend WAY more escaping their clutches).
In the Sendo case, they promised supply of a product (namely the operating system for the phone), then failed to produce it while Sendo went down the tubes. That's seriously restricting supply to Sendo.
As soon as they starved a partner, not a competitor even, they opened supply wide open.
I'm sure your economics class that you got while not doing your comp sci one will let you pick and choose a whole slew of tactics used by MS to avoid coming out into a Free Market.
And a Free Market is what Capitalism is all about.
No Free Market, no Capitalism.
Malk.
Interesting.. Many people think that Humans are at the height of the evolutionary chain, simply because we eat most of the lower animals, and we've made inroads on a lot of diseases.
However, the big problem currently is that Bacteria seem to evolve a darn sight faster than we do. Currently there are strains around that we can do the square root of sod all about, apart from stick the infected person into isolation until they die or get over it themselves.
These resistant strains are only going to get more predominant as they share genes, which will probably give humanity a run for it's money in the nearish future.
We may be the most advanced life on Earth (probably anyway), but, don't let that fool you into thinking we're the end of the line. If evolution gets arsy about us, the little guys still have plenty of tricks up their sleeves we don't have a clue about yet..
I'd like to think Humanity's got the potential for the best, in the evolutionary terms.. But we could still head for a fall yet.
Oh, and a monopoly isn't the end point of evolutionary capitalism. Monopoly is to Capitalism what Cancer is to a biological entity.
Grows fast, spreads out as far as it can, until it's all there is left. Usually killing it's own environment in the process.
Malk
The main thing here that most people are saying is, "Well, DUH! It's not like they haven't done this before."
As some people have correctly pointed out, the accused was recently slapped down (though not terribly hard) for behavior exactly like this.
Finally, since we're not the body responsible for trying this case we're certainly allowed to think anything we want. As long as the body that actually does resolve this is impartial than that's all that matters.
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
If somebody wants to share IP with the world then they are unAmerican, communitsts, and dirty hippies. But if M$ wants to steal IP from Sendo then that's just capitalism.
I want to be alone with the sandwich
w0000000000000000000000000000t
---
You have been w00ted. You have won. Have a nice day.
MicroSoft's lawyers cream Sendo's lawyers and MicroSoft gets away scott-free and goes after the next sucker. There's one born every minute.
Microsoft was late with the software, causing the cash-flow problem, yes. But I didn't see anything in there that Microsoft was obligated to give them more money in a scheduled payment.
Sendo asked Microsoft for more money to help them through their cash-flow problem. Microsoft refused. Scummy, yes, but I don't see how that payment could be considered "scheduled".
I agree that a big monopoly is the end of the line. A monopoly is to capitalism what cancer is to a formerly healthy individual. (sorry, borrowed from a parallel post, but he had it wrong.)
Nonetheless, I would argue that capitalism isn't a feel-good idealist system. Capitalism is what results from people dealing honestly with each other.
On the other hand, it is no secret that when people start to believe that their strength is their wealth, then they also begin to steal from each other, and you descend into feudalism. Pol Pot, here we come.
Capitalism is the blessing that we had from those all-to-few groups like the Amish, like William Penn's colony, like hardworking American farmers who *didn't* steal from the Indians [and there were many of those]. These people built integrity that happened to take the form of a system.
On the other hand you have the Puritans, who stimulated King Philip's War and slaughtered the Indians who helped them just a generation before.
They gave us a lot of the bad effects of the Industrial Revolution that Thoreau wrote about; they gave us a number of robber barons, were a strong force for the War of Northern Agression, and in the end converted our Constitutional Republic into the first stages of an Empire.
And, you might say, it has led to this. Not capitalism, but *neoliberal capitalism*. There's a world of difference.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
No[r]th American Capitalism *IS* Capitalism, dont confuse welfare states with private ownership of goods with capitalism.
...but, um, the US, Canada, and Mexico are welfare states that "graciously" allow private ownership of goods. "North American capitalism" is most certainly not capitalism (i.e. presumption of freedom plus protection of rights plus non-initiation of force), in the true sense.
Downmodding is the refuge of the weak. Don't downmod, make a better argument!
Just a typo, but looks like there's a dyslexic editor on the Register's website. 5/1/2003 appears to be a bit too far into the future. lol
Relive the BBS Past - One Byte at a Time! www.ssabbs.com
People, stop your frothing and think for a second. What does Microsoft want? Microsoft wants their software on every mobile device made, exactly the same way they want their software on every desktop PC.
Why the HELL would Microsoft, in a market they don't even yet play in, knife their premier partner in order to help another partner succeed? It doesn't make sense. What makes sense is that both hardware companies go to market, both selling compelling versions of a smartphone running Stinger. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is a losing strategy.
Forget business ethics, since we can take it for granted that, if Microsoft even has them, they are newly learned at the hands of the DoJ. Killing Sendo to benefit HTC would be a stupid decision, whatever vestigal IP MS might inherit, because the strategy is to be ubiquitiously licensed by everyone.
I understand that an inflammatory court filing from a nearly bankrupt little company trying to recoup some of its losses in a fat mother's-milk settlement straight from King Midas' teat has you a little stirred up, but the facts just don't add up. MS wins when Sendo AND HTC win, not when one or the other does. Look at the Pocket PC - 4 major vendors, now with Dell on-board. This is the same strategy as Smartphone.
Is it me? or are we missing a serious point here: Software was not delivered as promised. This causes lawsuits in itself. If a company promises SW at Time X, and fails to deliver, they incur penalties.
If Sendo was at fault on the SW delays, then MS has a recourse. If MS failed to deliver then MS side of the deal is invalid and anything they learned from that deal is considered "recoverable" and sendo has a right to recover the costs of the trade secret value.
Yes.. SW delays can cause companies to get sued. The US government penalizes thier contractors all the time
I can program myself out of a Hello World Contest!!
This is business, and the fittest businesses will prevail. A business which signs a contract giving all of their property to the other party in the event of a bankruptcy when the other party can more or less determine when that business goes bankrupt is obviously NOT a fit business.
This is free enterpirse at it's finest: Sendo ceases to exist because it was simply a poorly run business.
The only thing Microsoft is "guilty" of is preying upon the stupid. The relationship succeeded just fine - for the only party in the relationship that had a clue as to what it was doing. (That wasn't Sendo.)
Next Slashdot News Story: "Man makes deal with Devil, sues when faced with eternal damnation after death."
paintball
Sendo and Microsoft made an agreement that is contractual. Sendo agreed to it; kick and scream all you want. This is simply unfounded anger you have towards Microsoft. We know you think Sendo is victim and want to be Sendo's mother, but Sendo is a corporation and does not act in your interests. We should all be angry with Microsoft trying to issue end-user-license-agreements that were not agreed to and the non-agreed-to EULA's have no *legal* merit.
If Sendo didn't agree to the contract, then there wouldn't be a problem; it is all contractual so stop making Sendo look like they are innocent and didn't know Microsoft would remove every one of its employee's left genitals or whatever they agreed to.
What *would* be a valid *legal* case would be if the business-relations personel were issued mis-leading, construed, or incomplete statments by Microsoft to compel the agreement on such terms that were verbally unfounded in the contract. What contract did Sendo agree upon or was Sendo competent of the terms of the contract it agreed to? It is upto Sendo to make its own case in its lawsuit, not any of us. If Microsoft releases affirmed statments that Sendo made such a contractual agreement, and Sendo releases affirmed statments that it reached such a contractual agreement, then they are both talking about the same contract; otherwise, we are talking about two completly different contracts that are being spoken of and confused with; one that is written and one this is non-written(and illegal/not contractual). An affirmed contract for Sendo to supply Microsoft 5 million phones is different than an affirmed contract for Sendo to supply Microsoft 5 million phones including each Sendo employee's left genital. Before anyone disputes my text, Sendo and Microsoft are currently within jurisdiction of the United States (Federal corporation) government's rules and regulations and it is upto them to provide any such evidence that may nullify contracts that are issued incomplete. Civil Code of Procedure does not apply here, the Constitution of the united States of America may apply, so lets all here some facts that perhaps have not been allowed to receive outside a court of law.
But I'm sure you already Gnu that.
OSHKOSH, WI (AP) - Oshkosh resident Al Grand filed suit in Oshkosh District Court Thursday against Lucifer, commonly known in the area as "The Devil", citing a breach of contract, following his untimely death in a bizarre automobile accident on Wednesday.
"Lucifer made me an offer on Monday, promising to give me everything I could ever want on Earth in exchange for my soul. I had not been using my soul for much lately, so after sleeping on it, I signed the contract on Tuesday."
That's when Al made his first request. "I didn't want to be too greedy right off the bat, but I've always wanted one of those Hummers, so I asked for one," said Al.
But tragedy shortly followed: When driving through town on Wednesday, the vehicle's brakes failed and Al's new vehicle collided with a frieght train, pulled by CSX's engine No. 666.
"Lucifer did not provide me what he promised. Instead of everything I ever wanted on Earth, all I got was a premature death and eternal damnation. I had no idea Lucifer could be so selfish and treacherous."
When reached for comment, Lucifer's publicist Azreal stated, "The contract clearly specifies that upon his death, Al Grand's soul becomes the property of Lucifer Limited. We made no guarantees as to the time or manner of Mr. Grand's death. The Hummer's End User License Agreement, clearly printed in 6 pt. type in the user manual, also clearly states that the vehicle was provided as is, with no guarantees as to the suitability of the vehicle for any particular purpose, including driving."
paintball
about this and still manage not to touch on the two great facts that make the case relevant is beyond me. One of the facts MS has already been convicted of criminal behaviour in, and the other is an ongoing civil matter.
How you managed to construct your straw man is also a bit puzzling to me.
In any case, your post is completely unresponsive to the point of mine. This isn't entirely your fault though, since I never explicitly stated it, leaving it to the intelligence of the reader to figure it out.
I appear to have acted in error.
KFG
Uhh.. Score 5? Someone's got an odd concept of Capitalism. Capitalism works fine when everyone's honourable, and keeps their word, and basically plays the game. People make products and make money. Best product wins (votes=money). MS, as usual, are breaking the rules, and pulling their own game (kill all other contenders), which isn't Capitalism. In Capitalism, you end up with a flourishing ecosystem of companies providing a variety of competing products. Evolution selects the best. In the MS game, you end up with one monolithic power providing what it thinks is best for people. In fact, MS' way is more like communism than capitalism. "To each unto their needs'.. MS decides what each person needs, and that's what they get, like it or not. It attempts to take all competition out of the arena, so, if you want an office suite, you have MS office, as MS has killed the competition. So, really, MS is anti-capitalist.
With respect to your good grasp of anti-immoral behavior (I'm smiling), you are flawed; you defined a Free Market, not Capitalism. I love you, please read my post and tell me what you think. Capitalism is the basis of wealth being influence and this is greatest known by the barter system and nothing more. We all *barter* paper money because a bigger organization (my ex is United States LLC) has removed competition of tender by setting fire or destroying the competing mints around America. What you defined is a Free Market. A Free Market allows everyone to create their own policy, whether written or non-written. Non-written agreements are masqueraded as implied agreements and are variably illegal. A ozium is an unseen contract; be verry afraid of those. A Free Market respects the use of CONTRACTS only to the effort of them being uphelf by various means of either force, brutality, or voluntary obligation of trust, so don't get pissed at Microsoft before reading my previous comment in this forum on contractual obligations and their legality.
I'm just helping. I'm sovereign, so I'm a verry different point-of-view from all the electricity-generating humans that are still plugged-in to the Matrix (United States LLC, a corporation).
But I'm sure you already Gnu that.
Donut shops go out of business.
Just yesterday, a bigger (bad) and meaner donut shop opened next to a starbucks and sold a more expensive donut...StarLucks still went out of business.
The more expensive donut was tasty and customers agreed to pay for it. It was discovered that this bigger donut shop profiled and contracted with all noticable StarLucks employees to cut off their pinky fingers when buying their donuts. As a result in the StarLucks workplace, employees became noticabley rude as they lifted no pinky finger when they poured its customer's coffee. StarLucks is now out of business, because every employee working the coffee machine was unable to perform. Although this is a sad day, nobodoy will miss StarLucks simply because they agreed to this bigger donut company's contract.
And in similar fassion in other related events, Sendo agreed to Microsoft's contracted terms. We know the average slashdotter would not have agreed to such terms as what Sendo chose with Microsoft, but this is Sendo's choice and they chose to agree.
But I'm sure you already Gnu that.
Here is why I wonder. The software industry and the telco industry are TWO separate things. Even now with MS going with T-Online has Orange concerned. Orange networks had a MS device, but now is one of many providers of that "same" MS device.
Basically MS is giving punches before they are even established in the market. I am tempted to believe that they will not make it.
Here is why. My wife just got a new phone. It was an Ericsson T68. REAL sweet. Small, has colour and many other neat features. MS competitors are huge devices with little battery power. And having talked to my MS friend in the US he tells me only MS employees are the ones using these types of devices. BTW this includes the Palm devices as well. It seems that people want small devices....
What does this have to do with Sendo? I think that MS seriously has the lower hand and will loose this battle. And the reason is because they cannot get traction like they could in other markets.
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
1. Sign deals with small companies (Seattle Computer Products, now Sendo)
2. ?????
3. Profit!
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
There are several different outcomes for working with MS. Most CEOs, CFOs and directors see it as working with the best(richest) and hope some of the gold will rub off.
As I see it there are outcomes like:
Any company that signs a contract with MS is hoping for one of the first two outcomes - it makes the company managers rich. But usually it happens to be one of the last two outcomes. Signing contracts with MS is too much like a lottery for my taste.
From the track record of MS - if they don't want to buy the company then don't sign the contract. As a friend of my says "MS is like the bully on the play ground - even if you give them your lunch money, they can still beat up if they want to."
1. They strike a fat deal with MS
2. They fail several deadlines borrowing the money from MS to continue
3. MS folks' patience reaches the boiling point (they get fucked by their management too, you know!). MS pulls out of the deal
4. Sendo makes a huge amount of stink when Microsoft pulls out of the deal
4. Sendo is about to go bankrupt. No wonder, because it hasn't shipped anything
5. Microsoft finds two other companies and strikes the same deal as with Sendo
6. These companies deliver prototypes
7. Sendo makes even more stink by going to court
Mod me down if you want, but I fail to see where's Microsoft's fault here. Another thing, I highly doubt they haven't read their own fine print, which makes all this stink by Sendo a moot point. Contracts are negotiated before you sign them, not after that.
Faust made a bargain with the devil incarnate Mephistopheles. For that, upon Faust's death, Mephistopheles will claim the soul of Faust for eternity.
Lets hope that the story would conclude as Goethe's did, that at the final moment, Faust is rescued from the jaws of evil by the powers of good.
Seriously, Microsoft's behavior does not seem to be that of a company that expects to be around in 12 months. The treatment of Sendo & co., extortion of customers using the Business Software Alliance, unfavorable licensing 6, and even the faked video testimonies in the federal trials are not what you'd expect from a company that plans to stay in business. Rather it seems that Microsoft is just another dot-com that is now beginning re-entry.
So when they came over here from Europe they brought their own farmland with them?
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
It's called hydroponics. Of course, the Federal Government frowns on that sort of thing, nowadays, because it is often used to grow a native American herb that is also used in ropemaking...
Just joking of course. But I do know one guy who was taken down as a "drug dealer" and sent to prison for a combination of a user's amount of mj (a few grams), and having a business that sold hydroponics equipment, and refusing to give records of his sales to the DEA without a warrent.
In the end, he got a few years, they got the records they wanted (without a warrant), and that was that.
In reality, it isn't fair to say that all American farmers stole their land or supported the genocide of the indians. They didn't. One of my ancestors, once removed, was the orator Daniel Webster--but I'm not nearly as proud of him as I am of a direct ancestor who was an adopted chief. That is, he was a European-American, but they made him a chief. He was so adopted, because he treated the indians fairly, and helped them get fair deals when they dealt with his compatriots.
Not all were evil. Honestly. Read about William Penn.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
Only recently has the idea appeared that journalism should be objective. Before WWII all the newspapers were easily picked out as being biased. You had your communist newspaper, your Democrat newspaper, and your Republican newspaper. No one pretended that they were doing objective journalism. If you read newspapers from the time of the Spanish American war it's all like "Those sneaky Spaniards cowardly attacked our virtuous American boys in uniform."
The idea of objective journalism didn't start to show up until people realized that there was real money to be made. Then it became bad form to say that a country or a company was devious or sneaky. That's why you won't see it in papers, or if you do it's in the editorials. Even a strong editorial might go as far as say Sneaky. A strong editorial in an Old Time newspaper would be "Those rotten sneaky bastards are really starting to piss us off!"
I personally think objective journalism is a load of crap. All it does is make a journalist hide his or her biases down where you can't see them. Don't think microsoft did anything wrong? Don't even write a story about it. Or if you do they weren't "sneaky", they were "technically in breach of contract" which makes it sound like they forgot to dot an "i" or cross a "t" somewhere.
So, you can complain if you want that
Remember when you point a finger at someone you point three back at yourself.
Develup product ask Microsoft for help.
Do it once the wrong way. Do it again the right way in secret.
Microsoft gets the insecure back doored doomed to crash and burn version.
Then when they steal it they'll have to sue me to take it back.
Ohh atomic reactor yeah right under the magnetic media.
Not for the REAL vershion we use batterys.
I don't actually exist.
Y'know there's a reason why they call it organized crime. Mobster bosses are used to doing deals without legal contracts.
;).
Contracts if any, typically occur if someone breaks the deal
Microsoft seem to be full of people who perversely follow the letter of the law/contract, not the spirit. They often seem to do it just for the sake of doing it, even when it's counter productive. They're like a childish smart ass kid, that keeps trying to weasel out of things. A rich kid with no real friends.
That sort of thing doesn't go well with mobster bosses. They don't usually do that, and you sure don't try that with them. "You said I have to pay you by Sunday, you didn't say which Sunday". Yeah right.
I'd rather have enemies than a partner that I can't trust. When ten enemies stick daggers between your ribs it doesn't hurt as much as if your partner stabs you in the back.
Microsoft seems to operate as if there can only be one company in the whole world and it has to be Microsoft. Do companies ever get lonely without friends?
The easier way is that MS just says "Sorry folks, we have a patent on XXXX, and you can't use MONO any more. Oh by the way, since it is now so ingrained into Gnome, you can't use it either. Oh, and since all those Linux disks have Gnome on them, you'll have to destroy them all too."
If, by encumbering patents, Gnome and other tools can be taken out of the market, then that's a loss for users and has economic ramifications in itself. However, the real goal looks to be to transfer vendor lock-in to the Internet which would be far more expensive. Proprietary protocols are one means. I. Cringley is not the only one to point this strategy out. Bill Gates has himself mentioned similar ideas as an aside in his critique of Symbian:
According to his quote, he thought that Microsoft should create proprietary protocols in a few areas beside just the PC so that other devices have to pay them royalties if they want to interoperate. Gates suggests action to patent Microsoft's schemas and not to be asleep on "key issues like this".
The programmers of old were mysterious and profound. We cannot fathom
their thoughts, so all we do is describe their appearance.
Aware, like a fox crossing the water. Alert, like a general on the
battlefield. Kind, like a hostess greeting her guests. Simple, like uncarved
blocks of wood. Opaque, like black pools in darkened caves.
Who can tell the secrets of their hearts and minds?
The answer exists only in the Tao.
-- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"
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