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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, really. Even if it is for third party stuff. It was cash when the plantiff's were overcharged, shouldn't it be cash when it's returned?
It's not wasting time, I'm educating myself.
wow, that's like what, 3 minutes interest on their $40 billion in the bank. that'll really set them back a ways.
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they're back.
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
vouchers used for software need not be used to purchase Microsoft products.
But how much do you bet they will anyway?
Like: Hey, we've got all this money we can do whatever we want with : how about we go get new computers? guess what's installed on the computers that will be paid in the machines' price tag?
Unless people massively buy non-Intel boxes and/or Unix software, I'm willing to bet this will mean more money in the bank and more market penetration for Microsoft. Even if Linux, BSD or some other non-Windows OSes are actively promoted, you'll find a lot of Microsoft keyboards or mice in the hardware.
How could it be otherwise? Microsoft has the market so well cornered that sooner or later, a lot of the settlement money will come back to them.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
This is the illogical consequence of a society too taken with "free capitalism" and without grounds in the reality of economic greed: people will do bad things to get money, if it is the most important thing in society. How quickly we forget the lessons of the "Robber Barons."
#define DRM chmod 000