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Microsoft Flouting DOJ Settlement?
An anonymous reader writes "According to the Washington Post, Microsoft is not adhering to the terms of its deal with the DOJ. Specifically, there are allegations that it is "trying to license key pieces of its technology at inflated rates" and "thwarting its antitrust settlement with the federal government". They're charging $100,000 just to see technical info about their communication protocols, and you only get $50,000 back if you decide you don't want to license them. Whoda thunk?"
it's their perogative to charge what they want for information. Supply and Demand may change it eventually but they can start the prices where ever they want.
They're charging just $ 100,000 to inspect - just consider! MS spends $5 bn in R&D, yet the fruits of the R&D can be inspected for just .001% of their investment!
If that ain't reasonable, what is? You thought you could see the MS code for free? You got to be a non-American govt. threatening to use Open Source, for that sort of privilege.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Riiiiight.
There are consequences to actions. Unfortunately the American people cannot seem to draw a line between point A and point B.
This should not come as a surprise Judge CK and Justice both bent over backwards to please Billy since Ashcroft and others could only recuse themselves from direct involvement because of the contributions they received. This does not mean they did not have a hand in giving Microsoft the power to act as though there was no settlement, it merely means that the settlement was thus: Microsoft is free to be a monopoly and self-enforcing monopolies never can do anything wrong (or at least they SEE no evil, HEAR no evil, and SPEAK of no evil that they are involved in).
Really, who won the case? Not the people, well they did, but the newly elected administration had that overturned and gave Microsoft everything they ever wanted and then some.
Crash, bang, pow! The sound of companies being crushed, jobs being lost, and consumers losing more and more to the power of a global monopoly that is in fact a de facto government taxing American citizens on a national basis every time our government (once elected - now paid) buys from the Nation of Microsoft.
Do we really want more media consolidation - must be, someone in the government says its cool for one company to own everything and offer us the same crappy meals every day.
To borrow a line we might have to get used to""You will work harder with a gun in your back for a bowl of rice a day."
Thanks to Justice and Judge CK the animal is free to prowl and kill whatever it wants. Nice, real nice.
All Ad hominem replies happily ignored as the sender shall be deemed to lack the faculties to comprehend the equation.
Wow! Paying someone to steal your intellectual property. Thank you Microsoft. Now I understand all that innovation.
At the urging of the Justice Department, Microsoft will now allow engineers from potential licensees to visit its headquarters to examine more technical data. But the rivals say the company is requiring the engineers to sign such strict confidentiality agreements that their ability to work on related products for their employers would be hampered.
"Basically, I'd have to shoot the engineers when they came back," said one irate company executive.
Wow! Paying Microsoft to make your employees unuseable. Thank you Microsoft. Useful employees were a burden anyway.
'"We have made progress with Microsoft," one official said, adding that the department is following up on complaints from other firms. "We have gotten them to make changes."'
This just shows how scared the DOJ is of MS. I mean if I got taken to court for not paying back a loan and the court ordered me to pay £x back per month and I only paid a fraction of it back per month do you think they would say "We have made progress with graspee. We have gotten him to pay back some of the money he owes." ???
graspee
Right after he appointed all their corporate officers to his cabinet.
"You can't get something for nothing." - my grandfather, on the stock market and Reaganomics.
⦠or rather same old legal-tech story (SOLTS)
.
How come so many of the tech stories nowadays include the words:
court, settlement, legal
Getting tired of the misbehaviour and squabbling frankly.
All right letâ(TM)s see:
Loophole alert: âoeOne unusual provision, however, allows Microsoft to license some of the code â¦â
So thereâ(TM)s a disagreement on interpreting the scope of a term of the settlement. Just great.
⦠and now the second page of the storyâ(TM)s Slashdotted - prolly donâ(TM)t want to see it anyways â" ah, here it isâ¦
âMicrosoft requires companies that license the protocols to be audited -- at their own expense, by a third-party auditor selected by Microsoftâ
Then it isnâ(TM)t strictly third party, is it? Sort of more 1.3rd party than third party.
⦠and then theyâ(TM)re using a reverse version of SCOâ(TM)s NDA tactic, allowing them to potentially receive more information than they need in spirit. Did they learn this play from the same coach?
Howâ(TM)s the tail of this disagreement ever going to be chopped for good?
Esteem isn't a zero sum game
If the enemy in a war (legal or otherwise) is not defeated on every front, it will come back to fight again in the future. This is an ingrained law in our survival instincts. It's all about obtain resources to ensure survival. It's also a component or the very seat of primate social dynamics and POLITICS. The Borg undefeated, will regroup and launch another attack in a DIFFERENT area. Has Star Trek taught us nothing? Defeating the Borg requires implanting a fractal virus in their neural net, like this hasn't been tried before and would not be difficult to do again with its rampant security holes. People, seriously, to beat M$ is going to require a coordinated strategy on multiple fronts from negative advertising, publishing the truth about its business tactics, translating legalese of the EULA into common laymen's terms, word of mouth, and absolute bias towards other alternatives (Linux, Lindows, Mac OS X, etc...). This requires pushing hard the alternatives showing clear examples (demos) that are more cost efficient than M$ bugware.
It's not how crappy the computer you had to work with, it's how much you learned while overcoming its iniquities.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
The fact is that I can browse a few news sources and come up with significantly more fascinating, interesting, and topical stories than this. It is also news that Peoplesoft rejected Oracle's bid. It is actually BIGGER news than this MS junk.
There are a good one hundred technology/business stories a day. Singling out this one is not just politically motivated, it is childish. That is my point. If you really think slashdotters are into business related technology stories, then you need to report on the big stories, not the ones that make your "competition" look bad. This is fundamental editorial ethics.
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
Has Microsoft realised that most people just want an OS, without all the bundled software that comes with it. The majority of Windows users probably use Winamp over WMP, use Office/OO/SO over Wordpad, Photoshop/PSP over Paint, and more importantly, Mozilla/etc over IE.
If Microsoft removed all these obselete packages from Windows' default installation, maybe we can buy an OS cause it's an OS, not for the stuff that's in it, and maybe cut the costs, not to mention the bugs.
Founder of Mirror Moon - Tsukihime Game Trans
"Open a magazine or newspaper - it's there. It's on TV. It stains the logos and smears the nerve centers of the world's biggest corporations."
Sounds like vandalism. No one supports your view, so you force it with destructive crimes.
"This is the mark of the people who don't approve of Bush's plan to control the world,"
He doesn't have one.
"who don't want countries "liberated" without UN backing"
This is the same UN that issued antisemitic proclamations in the 1970s and presided over the massacre at Srbenica.
"This is the mark of the people who want the Kyoto Protocol for the environment"
Kyoto has nothing to do with the environment. It is all political.
"who want the International Criminal Court for greater justice"
No justice in that kangaroo court.
"Because my country has sold its soul to corporate power,"
It hasn't. Corporations are still overtaxed and over-regulated.
"And because patriotism now means agreeing with the president,
Well, that is true most of the time, since those who are anti-Bush are typically so because they hate the country and its people.
"I pledge to do my duty . . . and take my country back."
It is a democracy now. Do you want to take it back to being a British colony or something????
Iraq played with the rules for over 10 years before they got their hands slapped
My guess is, it will be another 10 years before the US Government gets around to making a decapitating strike of "Shock and Awe" against Redmond
Seriously though, I think it's rather obvious that the current Administration and Microsoft have come to some understanding to look the other way regarding Microsoft activities. No one will admit that, but that's what PACs are for
My biggest worry isn't the "Nyah - so we'll show you our stuff as required by law but charge so much for it - nyah", but the way they've gone back to buying/threatening anybody who might compete with them.
Take the whole Virtual PC thing. I switch from Linux to OS X on the desktop, and get all excited about Virtual PC - now for those few Windows Apps I *need* to run (like Sharkport for my PS2, Ultima VII in DOS mode - you know, the important stuff), I can have that.
Then - Microsoft buys Connectix. OK, I say. Then RealPC announces "We're comin' back - and better!" I see light at the end of the tunnel. If RealPC can do its "direct hardware technology" right, I could even play Half-Life I (and hope that HL2 gets ported to OS X) in a Virtual Window (yes, I'm sure I'd have to grab more RAM, but it's the *potential* of the idea).
Nope - MS is sueing them now too.
That's the part that worries me - the buyiing/sueing of companies who even *look* like they might do something that MS wants (remember how they tried to buy Quicken, and at least that one was nixed?). At least during the DOJ trial they *tried* to act nice - but now that it's over, it back to the Bad Old Days of either buying somebody out, locking them out, or sueing them into oblivion.
Patience, I tell myself. Someday, maybe 50 years from now when MS is just another fair player in the market, this will all be looked backed upon and laughed, like Standard Oil and AT&T. Patience.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
Those of us who worked in companies which competed with Microsoft understand that monopolies are suboptimal for capitalism. Eventually, it would get sorted out by the market; but for those of us who would rather not wait a hundred years, the government is the only available tool for the job.
> No, the invasion was to *ELIMINATE* WMD. Seems to have worked...
Yes, and they also got rid of all the aliens, bigfoots, and unicorns in Iraq.
Now they're going to install democracy and ensure everyone an education, a job, and good healthcare, just like here at home.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Politics.
The current administraton has little interest in pursuing MS. The DOJ is headed by the Attourney General, who is a political appointee of the president. You do something that pisses off the administration -- such as being overly aggressive toward a large employer in a down economy -- you're going to find yourself being one of the people looking for work. And whatever casework you did will be quietly filed until such a time as it can be shredded.
Not that this would be much different under a Democrat administration (what, you don't remember people complaining about the DOJ pursuing MS under Clinton/Reno because they are such a big employer? Go read some older news coverage...) -- the fact is, prosecuting large employers (corporations) when there's relatively high unemployment, particularly in the sector the company is involved in, is a bad political move. The company will complain to the media, and your political opponents, regardless of color or stripe, will jump on it and harp about how you're destroying the economy.
I agree it does look a little like the government isn't into really sorting Microsoft out. But then again, the priorities are rather different. You and I may care about these libertarian issues of control of information, patents, open source or whatever. I'd assume government primarily cares about the economy. Big business always gets a let call until their bending of the rules really start to hurt the economy more than it benefits it(thats the difference with say, Enron). Capitalism seems to work but its never going to be fair.
Just the facts:
All the monopoly-whining in the world won't help. On the contrary, it will help Microsoft by portraing them as invulnerable, always winning and not worth resisting.
What will make a difference is use products and open standards.
For example in southern Germany the tiny town of SchwÃbisch Hall has moved to Linux a few months ago, a few weeks ago Munich was inspired by that and (just a few kilometers away) has decided to do the same and a week later Stuttgart und Oldenburg, 2 other south-German cities are evaluating to join in, others will follow.
The dominos are falling. With all the relevant software being ported to Linux, expect a lot of other european cities to move to KDE/Linux as well within 3 years.
So please:
Stop whining, start doing. Whining will not achieve anything.
Tell your coworkers and your boss about Mozilla and OpenOffice, explain to your boss that Microsoft will give anybody huge discounts who is able to move away from Microsoft, etc.
" Which Enron corporate officers hold a cabinet post?"
Shhhh. Don't dare to say things like this. You never know, when you put out a few facts, the left-wing FUD might crumble. They get really mad when you point out that Bush won the actual counts in Florida too.
Sit down, shut up, and believe that Kenneth Lay is our Secretary of State.
Look at it this way... The DOJ consists mostly of working people just trying to do their jobs. Every 4 or 8 years or so, their entire upper management structure changes, and so does the focus of the organization. The workers generally survive the administration, but they have to adapt.
Now apply that to the antitrust division. Under the current administration, they basically don't have a job, except to put up the appearances of doing a job. They have to draw the fine line between sufficient appearance with no effective action. Furthermore, the job they can't do now will come back to haunt them the next time the political winds blow the other direction.
No wonder they're scared. Their job is to not do their job, but make it look like they are. They can't win, merely hold out.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
" The difference between Bush and Clinton is that Clinton is no danger anymore"
The difference is that clinton lied about his who stuck his cock into, bush lied about why he took us to war and killed tens of thousands of people.
War is necrophilia.
Microsofts Seattlement is a farce.
The way I understand it: the pay penalties
in the form of donating WinPCs to poor schools?
This increases the monopoly, not lessen it.
Bram Stolk http://stolk.org/tlctc/
"McDonalds was wrong to serve coffee it knew was dangerous and had caused injuries before"
The coffee was labelled as "hot", and any child knows that you be careful around hot liquids. The only thing wrong here was that a clumsy lady spilled coffee on her own lap and was able, through a crooked attorney, to get someone else to pay for her own action.
When you have enough money to discard any fine?
When you have enough power to force any business entity to do almost anything you need?
When the authorities of the law are so weak and limited in their power?
The only way to get Microsoft, as well as many other unethical, illegal and otherwise misbehaving companies to obey the law is to gradually increase the punishments given when they are found guilty.
The "corporate death penalty" (the destruction of a corporation and the auctioning of all of its assets) was and still is a possible punishment that can threaten those corporations who show contempt for the law and repeatedly defy it.
The "corporate death penalty" brought, and could bring today - respect of the law.
Call to restore the "corporate death penalty" today!
this being the same "time" that would not be given to the inspectors to complete the inspections to find the damn stuff...
MLT - simple and robust open source multimedia framework for Linux
a profit center.
Some insurance companies did that years ago with a billion dollar settlement against them and they used the opportunity to charge off a lot of hardware and document scanning software and the people and procedure development against it.
End result, they got lots of new toys which they used to develop in-house technology and processing and they had bugger all left to share between the poor fools who applied for their redress.
Specially since most of the process was to make the poor schmucks provide information (that's why the scanning,) that was then checked against the companies' own records. If there was a discrepancy, they got squat. Like there was a chance an outsider has access to that data.
End result, insurance companies win, their customers lose, again, and the law was flouted once again.
No surprise there either.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
And also the same "time" not being given to Saddam to imprison and kill children, rape women, and terrorize his own people.
You used paragraph after paragraph of irrelevant detail in an attempt to get past the fact of the case: she spilled coffee on herself.
Yeah because when a customer does something that shouldn't be dangerous and gets hurt they should be considered solely at fault. But when a corporation does something that they already know is dangerous they should never be held accountable.
Why do so many people that spout about taking responsibility for your actions never want to apply that standard to corporations?
The inspectors had 10 years. They *WERE NOT* going to find anything. They were crippled by having to play Saddams game.
I would go into various conspiracy theories about the inspectors not wanting to find WMD, but they are theories only, with no real proof.
I think that you may be right that war was the only solution to get rid of Saddam, I just don't agree that the time to do it was necessarily now. Saddam was bad, but while the world is distracted by Iraq, there are worse disasters going on in Zimbabwe and Congo. Was it really necessary to go after Saddam right now? Wasn't he being contained by sanctions and weapons inspectors? It looks like the inspectors did just as good a job as the military is now, and there are absolutely no restrictions on the current inspections.
That is the crux of the matter for me, and you can judge for yourself whether it matters. I think Bush had his priorities screwed up by going after Saddam first. His justification for going after Saddam appears to be much less compelling than he claimed. I think he was lying to influence opinion about the decision of when to go to war; and also exaggerated the necessity.
And incidentally, Iraqi refugees are going to be a lot less concerned about the destruction of Iraq than its inhabitants, and might just judge the costs of the war differently than someone who had to live through it.
-- Pot is safer than Beer
with the current administration in place the DOJ might not go after M$.
It makes more sense to dictate how I should redistribute a software (in MS case, I usually cannot at all...) than how to USE it... don't you think?
And if you read a MS EULA and then the GPL... you would probably notice that one grants you rights while one removes rights... Guess which does which...
We've always been at war with Eurasia.