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Massachusetts Probing Microsoft Settlement Gripes

Posted by timothy on from the imagine-that dept.

tassii writes "In this article from Reuters, Massachusetts' DA's office told the judge in the Microsoft Anti-trust trial that it was looking into Microsoft settlement complaints. Among complaints being examined by Massachusetts was whether Microsoft had violated portions of the settlement prohibiting pacts requiring exclusive support of Microsoft software. Massachusetts was also examining whether the company had properly offered communications protocols allowing non-Microsoft software to work well with Windows." An Associated Press article covers the same story; the non-Microsoft software mentioned in both stories is Linux, but it's not clear which company's promotion of Linux is drawing the attention.

9 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. Another Troll by tarquin_fim_bim · · Score: 5, Funny

    "whether the company had properly offered communications protocols allowing non-Microsoft software to work well with Windows"

    Jeez, give 'em a break they're still trying to make Microsoft software to work well with Windows.

  2. In other news... by GillBates0 · · Score: 5, Funny
    The konsent dekree approved by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in November inkludes provisions aimed at giving komputer makers more freedom to feature non-Mikrosoft software on the machines they sell.

    Microsoft promised to change it's brandname to Mikrosoft provided Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled in their favor.

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
  3. MS got away with a slap on their wrists.... by hashish · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now it turns out that they have yet to have the slap on the wrist yet.

  4. Re:Wow by KiahZero · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If I recall correctly, problem was when the first judge talked out of turn to the press, the government felt they had to ease up on the restrictions so people wouldn't feel that they were being too hard on Microsoft.

    In retrospect, no one seems to care what happens to corporate criminals (excluding Martha Stewart, but that's just because she, as Lewis Black said "made us feel bad about using parsley as a garnish").

    I used to think that breaking MS up would have been a bad idea... now I'm wondering if it was the only feasible situation.

    --
    I'm a lawyer, but not yours. I wouldn't represent someone who thinks taking legal advice from Slashdot is a good idea.
  5. Massachusetts Attorney General Complaint Form by David+Hume · · Score: 5, Informative

    Microsoft

    In 1998, Massachusetts, together with a group of states and the United States Department of Justice, filed a civil law suit against Microsoft Corporation alleging antitrust violations. In 2000, the Court found Microsoft liable for maintaining an illegal monopoly in personal computer operating systems. In November 2002, following an appeal and several court hearings, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued a judgment in the Massachusetts case prohibiting Microsoft from continuing certain unlawful conduct.

    Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly is seeking stricter and more rigorous restrictions on Microsoft's business practices than those put in place by the Court judgment, and has asked the Court of Appeals to consider the matter. Massachusetts is scheduled to argue its appeal in November 2003.

    Even though Massachusetts is pursuing a further remedy, the Massachusetts Attorney General is working to ensure that Microsoft complies with the injunction issued in November 2002. If you or your business have a complaint about Microsoft's business behavior or practices, please complete a Complaint Form (File Size: 26 KB) and forward it to the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General, Consumer Protection and Antitrust Division, One Ashburton Place, Boston, MA 02108-1598, Attention: Kenneth Miller, CPAD. If you have a complaint against Microsoft, you also may call Kenneth Miller at (617) 727-2200 ext. 2965.


    Source: Massachusetts Attorney General Microsoft Page

    --
    Only Women Bleed (Sex, Sharia remix)
  6. Mass powered by ASP.NET by GillBates0 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The state also complained that its investigation of Microsoft has been hampered by the Justice Department and some other states enforcing agreements that preclude any of the states from cooperating with Massachusetts."The exclusion of Massachusetts has been effective and complete," the state said.

    And needless to say, the Massachusetts Attorney General's website is running Microsoft-IIS/6.0

    200 OK
    Cache-Control: private
    Connection: Keep-Alive
    Date: Tue, 08 Jul 2003 13:20:00 GMT
    Server: Microsoft-IIS/5.0
    X-Powered-By: ASP.NET

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
  7. MS evil? That's news to me by UnknowingFool · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We all knew this would happen. The only question was when and if anybody noticed. Unfortunately, one of MS defences has always been ignorance. They can claim that they are so big that they don't know sometimes what each section of the company is doing. Take for example the iLoo fiasco. Cynics like me think that the negative public reaction forced them to retract their statements. Billy G has always had a firm grasp of his company. Even though publicly he isn't running the company, as the major stockholder, he would be stupid not to be in charge. MS is still doing business as usual, now they are not so blatant about it.

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  8. Top Website by tds67 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Massachusetts also told U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly that it will establish a Web site to solicit complaints about Microsoft's behavior...

    ...thereby replacing donotcall.gov as the hottest new website around.

  9. protocol problems, eh? you don;'t say! by Eminor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "whether the company had properly offered communications protocols allowing non-Microsoft software to work well with Windows"

    This is a problem. One that made me decide to switch email clients. A while back, my prof. send me my mark back in an attached file. I did not not "get the attachment". I hounded him a couple of times for the mark. He insisted that he sent it to me. He even said that my reply had the file attached. I did some investigation, and found that the attached file was there, but wasn't showing up in the user interface. On further investigation, I found that this is an issue when Outlook XP recieves attachments from Pine. Microsoft was aware of the problem and had no plans to fix it.

    I have no idea why Outlook XP would recieve an attachment from Pine and not show it. It would seem like the code would almost have to be made to purposely do that. Who knows, maybe it is a bug.

    A few months later, switch over to Linux entirely. I now use evolution. I never looked back.