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Microsoft Settles Six Class-Action Suits
Bootsy Collins writes "Microsoft has
reached a settlement
in class-action lawsuits filed against them by five states and the District of Columbia. Two of the six settlements have already been approved by the relevant courts.
The settlements would provide $200 million in vouchers to past purchasers of Microsoft software.
The vouchers can be used to purchase hardware, software, or training; suprisingly (given plaintiffs' willingness to roll over on this issue in the past),
vouchers used for software need not be used to purchase Microsoft products. More on this story from the
Washington Post as well as
many other news sources."
I mean, it always comes down to vouchers.
They gave away some software.. OHH THE PAIN. HOW MUCH IT HURTS.
Keeps their marketshare up, doesn't really cost them any real capital, just a slight market dilution, and so on. Not like, say, 200 million in auto parts.
It should have been CASH.
I know others will point this out - but when will MS actually be punished for persistent illegalities rather than "giving away" stuff of "$$$" value that they claim a tax refund on?
What happened to three strikes? Where are the orange jumb suits and chains?
They are obviously serial offenders who see this sort of thing as a small cost of doing business.
-- Free software on every PC on every desk
$200 million in exchange for which they get to rule the computer industry and do absolutely anything they like, and the government bodies that are supposed to periodically stop in and enforce anti-trust laws will look the other way, because Microsoft's already had its "punishment".
For $200 million? That sounds like a pretty damn good deal to me.
Especially when you have the amount of money in the bank MS does. I mean, hell, $200 million is what they spent on keeping the x-box disaster afloat in just the first quarter of this year alone.
Would you like a bag of ice for that wrist there, Microsoft?
Those were the last of the bits of the U.S. government holding out on actually holding MS accountable instead of just settling with them, right? Is the EU still going forward with anything?
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
"It was cash when the plantiff's were overcharged, shouldn't it be cash when it's returned?"
Uh, if you refund money from a monopoly, what's to prevent that money from going right back to the monopoly? At least, in this case, it gives people a chance to try out alternatives.
It's a little more complicated than that, though. According to the final ruling in the anti-trust case, Microsoft isn't guilty of creating a monopoly, they're guilty of maintaining it. The implication there is that at some point, people said "We want Microsoft" and found the price fair. If they agreed to pay the price, why should they get cash back? Let the buyer beware.
In any case, I'm not all that surprised that it turned out this way. Silver lining, folks. Non-Microsoft products get an audience they didn't have before, and schools benefit too.
"Derp de derp."
If this is anything like the california 'settlement' it's a fucking sham. The state of california filed the lawsuit on 'behaf of its constituents'... and here is what happened.
... that's $129 of COLD HARD CASH
The lawsuit result was for a couple billion dollars that microsoft had to 'give back' to its customers in california. So, much like the vouchers system in this one.. if you sent microsoft your license keys, they would give you a 'voucher' certificate. You could then purchase other hardware/software and mail in the receipt+voucher to get cash. Now here is where the scam is....
All the money that isn't redeemed goes to seperate places. 2/3 of it goes to the state of california to 'help fund schools' and the last 1/3 goes back to microsoft. Now we all know if they get money from microsoft that can only be used for schools that means they will offset funds for schools later...
So this is essentially payola for the state of california, fucking swine.
who is going to go through the effort to get back, oh $50 on their microsoft licenses so that they can just purchase more equipment. Not joe blow.
Compare this to the lawsuit filed by apple's customers about the G3's not being supported by macosX. The settlement says 'send in your copy of OSX and we will give you $129'
goverment for the people indeed.
- "Never let a computer tell me shit." - DelTron Zero
Hey, that's no joke. These voucher class action settlements are horrible for consumers. When I sent money to the effort to free the sources for Blender I used Western Union. A month or so ago I got a letter telling me that there was a class action suit against Western Union because when they were transfering money to other countries (Blender is based in the Netherlands) they were making a secret profit on the currency conversions. I was entitled to a settlement in the form of a voucher that could be used for future Western Union transactions. I'm sure this is a relevant settlement to somebody, but I have no plans to ever use Western Union again. The lawyers got rich, the company was forced to do unwanted promotional mailings (the vouchers are so small that they're more like coupons than a punishment) and the costs got passed on to consumers. Anymore, class action lawsuits seem more like oil speculation and less like civil justice.