Slashdot Mirror
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?"
Except of course that part of their settlement for abusing their monopoly position was a court order that they open all the information on their protocols to the general public.
In a market with actual competition that would work. Unfortunately Microsoft is a convicted monopolist, which puts it out of the supply/demand argument as they supply what they want, to whom they want, under whatever terms they want, to the detriment of an open market.
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
Usually, I'm an anti-MS zealot, but this time I agree with you. It's not a fee, it's a deterrent. I would love to get a copy of MS's protocols so I could write a proper exchange connector for unix. But I don't have a hundred grand to pony up, so it ain't gonna happen.
This isn't unfair competitive practices, this is competitive practices designed to protect their trade secrets. They are essentially showing the holy grail of linux computing, so why shouldn't they charge an admission fee?
You think that I'm crazy, you should see this guy!
Ah stuff it, you whiny bastard. They are a *convicted* monopolist. The opening of the protocols is part of the *verdict*. Ponder this quote:
"There is something fundamentally wrong with requiring Novell to pay large sums of money to access information that the court determined Microsoft illegally withheld," said Ryan Richards, a Novell vice president and deputy general counsel. "Microsoft breaks the law and Novell pays for the remedy."
So no, $100.000 is not reasonable, it's extortion.
so why shouldn't they charge an admission fee?
Oh I dunno, maybe because the DOJ settlement said they had to? Or is that not a good enough reason for you?
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
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
Agreed. And what's anybody gonna go about it? Ooooh, Microsoft broke the law again, now in three or four years the DOJ might bring legal action against 'em and in another eight or ten years they might get slapped with another settlement to ignore. Ooooooooohhh. Like, they're really scared.
> 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.
they're not breaking the DOJ settlement unless you consider 100k fee unreasonable and discriminatory.
It is both unreasonable and discriminatory.
Unreasonable? Hardly, in a business world that money is peanuts.
That is irrelevant. They are supposed to disclose the protocols to competitors. The purpose is to level the playing field to competition. Anyone who is a competitor, such as an open source project, should be able to get the protocols.
It is unreasonable because the cost of providing this information is practically zero. They could put it on their web site if they were truly interested in complying with the DOJ settlement.
Discriminatory? Nope. As far as we know, they're asking the same price from everyone.
It is discriminatory. It is intended to discriminate against the biggest possible competitor that MS has ever faced. This is directly against the spirit of the settlement.
If asking the same price for everyone were all that mattered, then why not just ask for $1 Trillion? They would not be discriminating against anyone after all. In your world, this would not be unreasonable.
Is Ferrari discriminating against me because I'm too poor?
Irrelevant. Ferrari has not been ordered to provide you with transportation. Furthermore, the MS communication protocols are not a product you are buying. This is information that a court of law has ordered MS to provide to all competitors. I wouldn't have a problem if MS charged for the cost of media, or some minor cost tied to the production of the information. But again, producing this information, even in a very raw form, would cost very little. It could be widely circulated.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
I don't think they will ever realize that.. mostly because for the most part I am pretty sure it's not true.
And just look to the Linux distros for proof.. I don't see a lot of them that come as just an OS.. It's OS, X, gcc and friends, web browsers, pims, media players, etc etc etc. And all wrapped up in one nice little bundle that can be installed all at once.
I am guessing most normal (non-geek) users of windows do use IE, why spend the time to download when you have a browser already there.. And I think a lot of geek type may as well, since soo many web sites are designed to work with IE and look like crap in Moz.
Why go out looking for a media player if you have one that works? People new to pcs would not know about winamp unless someone told them it rocked, so why would they go looking in the first place, not to mention winamp doesn't do video..
The long and short is, if they just sold windows without IE, Outlook Express, WMP, etc etc it would be harder to justify the cost, make microsoft apps less obvious, and make it so people had to CHOOSE to get their software instead of someone elses. Why would they want to do that??
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.
" 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.
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!
And also the same "time" not being given to Saddam to imprison and kill children, rape women, and terrorize his own people.