Microsoft vs. Burst.com

rocketjam writes "Robert X. Cringley has an interesting story on one of Microsoft's many little-known legal cases. Burst.com is suing Microsoft, claiming MS negotiated in bad faith for over a year before stealing Burst's patented technology for increasing the efficiency of video and audio streaming. After Microsoft submitted all emails associated with the their dealings with Burst to the court, Burst's lawyers discovered a 35-week gap of missing mail during a critical portion of the negotiations. When the judge learned the Sun vs. Microsoft antitrust case had revealed that MS keeps backups of all emails on over 100,000 tapes stored offsite, he ordered them to come up with the missing messages."

Comments

what amazes me most

[b17bmbr]

is the way micrisoft behaves, and yet people and especially businesses continue to basically sell themselves to the bishop of redmond. okay, i can see people, walking into best buy, comp usa, even go to dell.com and by a "pc". many just don't think about an OS. however, i cannot fathom how businesses will continue to so slovenly follow and buy into whatever microsoft puts out. if any other supplier or partner acted even remotely similarly, then nobody would do business with them. i don't get it. i understand schools from personal experience. they throw freebies and such to the schools. for instance, in my master's in ed program, we can get office pro for $20. for mac or windows. and most schoot IT people are not too bright or talented, else they'd have more lucrative employment. but businesses are another deal. why do they follow them still. it can't be because there are no other options. ( i personally think "piracy" had alot to do with it. but that's another thread.)

<rhetorical question>is managment really that stupid or shortsighted?</rhetorical question>