Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Doing the Math in the Microsoft Anti-Trust Cases

Posted by michael on from the your-puny-fines-are-no-match-for-the-power dept.

coupland writes "Bob Cringely has posted this week's column and has made some interesting comments. He says that regardless of what happens in the EU, DOJ, and class-action proceedings, Microsoft can't lose. Why? Because they make more money by paying lip-service to the law and accepting the occasional fine than by complying. He even does some simple math to prove his point. Fascinating stuff."

12 of 407 comments (clear)

  1. "Oh, I'll just pay the fine..." by vudufixit · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Bill Janklow was a recalcitrant breaker of traffic laws. He went on record saying, "Oh, I'll just pay the fine" even though he probably racked up enough violations to have his license taken away. He kept on "paying the fine" until his car met a motorcyle and the person driving the latter was killed.

    1. Re:"Oh, I'll just pay the fine..." by vudufixit · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I knew about this because it was a national story. I honestly don't follow much about South Dakota, although I loved driving through and seeing the Badlands and Mount Rushmore in person.
      True, my comment wasn't especially relevant, except in the sense of it being an example of a powerful person who broke the law repeatedly and was content to shrug it off and "simply pay the fine."
      It's especially egregious in the case of politicians, because they routinely exempt themselves from justice.
      It's outrageous that a person ran through a stop signal, and killed someone. It's more outrageous that they were a persistent violator of traffic laws. It's even more outrageous that this was someone who makes laws and is sworn to uphold them.

    2. Re:"Oh, I'll just pay the fine..." by jamonterrell · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'm following it too. Because I like to ride the "latter" (motorcycles). He needs to pay with about 20 years of his life, and never being allowed to drive again. I don't think this is an appropriate punishment for everyone who happens to kill a motorcyclist by driving wrecklessly, but when you've been called on it as many times as him and refuse to change, you deserve it.

      On that same note, Microsoft needs to have an appropriate punishment as well for their continued and blatent disregard for the laws of every country in the world. They need to be given a chance to comply with the laws and the slap-on-the-wrist fine they received. However, if they still fail to comply with anti-monopoly rulings and change the way they do business... after all the chances they've been awarded then they need to REALLY be punished. I'm thinking something along the lines of having their intellectual property right to collect money for use of their product needs to be revoked until such time as they can comply. Basically, if they don't sell a product that complies, then they should be restricted from selling any product at all. And to prevent them from holding out by simply not letting people have windows, their right to the exclusive distribution should be revoked, and users should be allowed to use a "communal, free" license to their software until such time as Microsoft can provide a copy of it that complies with rulings.

      Jamon

      --
      I can count to 1023 on my hands. Ask me about #132.
  2. I did the math by krray · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Interesting take on things -- and I will say that I am no Microsoft fan. I was ticked when I had to pay the Windows tax to get a PC during the time period Microsoft got away with such tatics. Working in IT myself and being a business owner I will say that as a end user I do not trust Microsoft anymore. Not for a long time. WFW3.11 and NT had it going on back in the day. 95 came to market too soon (and no, I didn't buy). 98 wasn't any good until the se release. Me was nothing but a money grab. 2K is barely usable and XP is a joke (IMHO :).

    Funny -- of course the offices all run on Linux (and/or Netware to this day, thank you :). New desktops are either OS X or Linux based. Period. Where possible (CAD groups) the networks have been segmented off and there's little Windows worlds that, in a couple of my offices ... can't see the Internet. Ever. Yeah, I believe it has come to that (already). Funny, but the networks always ... just work. Always.

    There something wrong with this guys equations ... and I believe that it does NOT account for people like me. There's many of me out there it seems. I took my mom and dad off Windows years ago and they THANKED ME. Go figure. My contribution to the Microsoft coffers since 2000? $-0-

    It sure seems that with EVERY major computer type company you look at they're all going one Unix or the other. IBM is Linux. Redhat Linux (obviously :). Mac's are BSD based. BSD is alive and strong, don't think it's not... Novell has gone Linux. HP and Dell want into the mix directly. What do the best tv video recorders all run on?

    Microsoft obviously has enough money to be a around for a long while. Even while their markets are being eaten left and right. Windows is, well, a technological JOKE at best -- comparing it personally to any of the Unix's out there. OpenOffice sure isn't going away. Who knows WordPerfect may decently re-appear and there's always -X- company out there to come along. What else does Microsoft make money at? Not much.

    I see their bottom line continueing to be eaten away -- left and right. Mean while their costs will continue to sky rocket and things will be, well, fun to watch...

  3. Well, Duh! by fm6 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Anybody who's followed Microsoft's legal hassles -- or the legal hassles of any big corporation -- knows this stuff.

    Back during the Watergate scandals, a big corp got caught making illegal contributions to a Republican slush fund. They had to pay a fine, of course. A reporter, noticing the paltry size of the fine, remarked to one of the lawyers, "I'll bet your fee was higher than that." The lawyer responded heatedly, "I should hope so!"

    But don't respond with a round of lawyer bashing. That's like blaming garbagemen for pollution. Instead, go out and elect a President who will appoint an Attorney General who thinks that anti-trust laws need penalities that actually hurt.

  4. Nothing you can do... by opusman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I thought Bob was unusually long winded this time. All he is basically saying is that Microsoft have so much money that no court-imposed monetary penalty can possibly be a problem for them. This is obvious I would have thought.

    Even a forced break-up, splitting up the OS and Office divisions, would probably not slow them down too much. Then you would just have 2 monopolies instead of 1.

    The forced open-sourcing of Windows is the way to go!

  5. Old news... by gpinzone · · Score: 4, Interesting

    MS has been doing this for YEARS. He's just catching on now? What about DriveSpace and the lawsuit by Stac? MS had to change a little code and Stac went out of business. MS stole Apple's quicktime coded for windows 3.11 and all they got was a slap on the wrists. Makes you wonder how much crap they actually got away with.

  6. Re:What a suprise by awtbfb · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We had a similar situation when I was at school. Paying to park at the meters for the bulk of the day was more than the parking ticket - which could only be issued once per car per day. The rule became, put coins in the meter if you'll be there less than 4 hours, otherwise, skip it.

    Of course, they may have wanted it that way since it requires less labor to process the ticket than it does to haul away all those coins.

  7. This happens.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's my understanding that this happens very often in large corporations. There was a recent article on a large pipe manufacturer that refuses to comply with OSHA standards for factory safety because it's MUCH cheaper to pay an occasional fine than upgrade; don't think this is a tactic only big n' evil Microsoft uses.

  8. Re:bah... by lawpoop · · Score: 4, Interesting
    He is using metaphors, but they are certainly not mixed. They are apt! Apt, I say!

    Basically Cringely is arguing that the court system, whose timetables are based on pre-industrial information flows (i.e. the time it takes a man on horse and buggy to get the handwritten documents from the lawyer's office to a court house), cannot keep up with the hijinks MS is pulling in the relatively fast-paced digital age. By the time this particular case goes through appeals, etc., the story will be ancient in computer terms. MS will have screwed consumers 50 ways from Sunday in the meantime.

    As far as USPS, or European postal systems having to do with MS legal difficulties -- how do you think the documents were presented to the courts? Fax? Email? ;) Now, reflect and understand why the courts can't keep up with MS-BS.

    --
    Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
    -- Pablo Picasso
  9. Corporate 3 Strikes... ph34r M3!!!1! by tsm_sf · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A little sauce for the goose, my friend.

    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/05/national /main552270.shtml

    This is such a fantastically good idea. Imagine watching our congressppl(on both sides of the isle) try to explain why they can't quite support it.
    Hours of entertainment ensue.

    At your expense.

    --
    Literalism isn't a form of humor, it's you being irritating.
  10. Re:Postponing trials and appealing... by chimpo13 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Which brings us back to Bill Janklow again. 100 days in jail for vehicular manslaughter. How much time do you think Ballmer or Gates would do?

    I'm surprised that Janklow even got 100 days. Tennessee Senator Koella was drunk, hit a motorcyclist and left him to die on the road. Koella served no time. And then they named the road after Koella when he died of natural causes.

    Martha Stewart is going to prison because she's not politically connected, and probably because she's female. If only she was in Skull & Bones...

    --
    riding round the world on an old motorcycle