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Microsoft Settles Minnesota Antitrust Suit
An anonymous reader writes "According to the Star Tribune: 'The Microsoft antitrust suit in Minnesota was settled out-of-court Monday seven weeks after it began, but before the plaintiffs even finished putting on their case before the jury. Terms of the settlement won't be disclosed until they are finalized and presented to a Hennepin County judge for preliminary approval 'in early summer,' Microsoft said in a statement. The antitrust suit in Hennepin Country District Court sought as much as half a billion dollars from Microsoft for alleged overcharges of more than 1 million Minnesota consumers and businesses who bought Microsoft Windows, Word or Excel software between 1994 and 2001.'"
bash$ find linux-2.6.5 -exec grep FIXME {} \; | wc -l
2494
bash$
Let's keep posts on topic.
What is Minnesota running out of money just like the EU? So they try to hit up the cash cow, I think we will see more and more of these suits comming out, and all that it is going to do is make it so generic that they will get thrown out on the spot.
First cheese mention?
n/t
anyone wanna slap MS with a clue stick?
Cue the Fargo references, you betcha.
Or else Minnesota may have sent Brock Lesnar and Jesse Ventura after them. They could easily beat Gates and Ballmer in a tag match.
Just throw money at every piece of litigation they are in? Are they trying to artificially boost their public perception by being in as little lawsuits as possible?
....move along....nothing to see here....
PC World
Forbes
FT.com (A good one!)
- Jax
Score one for the little guy? I doubt it.
MS should have been broken up like Ma Bell a long time ago.
Oh yah, that's goud, eh?
Microsoft are like that car company (Ford???) who decided it was cheaper to compensate burn sufferers and the bereaved than fix the gaping flaw that made their fuel tanks tend to catch fire.
Microsoft can pay fines out of their petty cash, while perpetrating similar tricks over and over.
#define struct union
"Free" copies of WindowsXP? "Free" copies of MS-Word? a $4 coupon off your next purchase of $600 software? MS is just extending their monopoly, probably dangling a carrot in front of the schools, after all, who can fault them if its 'for the kids' ?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Could be the state got overcharged, but there are enough other cases where it works the way I interpreted this one to ask anyway.
Thats 1/3 the size of L.A. Losers. I bet they pay less sales tax, have less traffic, and housing is affordable. Oh.... =(
If so, I can see why M$ would settle.
A win against them in court by the state would make it a lot easier for a class-action suit to also win, setting even further precedent in other states.
Microsoft is going full throttle to settle all outstanding lawsuits. It wouldn't do to have a bunch of outstanding legal battles while you're throwing mud at Linux and questioning the legal security of the businesses that are using it.
Regardless of how the SCO thing works out, you can be sure that MSFT will be using this FUD when trying to close deals with big business customers.
Microsoft is finally getting its comeuppance. Little by little it's reaping the rewards of its shady business practices and sexist hiring policy. According to Wired, Microsoft's workforce is some 80% men. 80%, in this day and age is just inexcusable. I hope to see a million cases like this one. One day our court system will bring us just business and hiring practices!
Remember Jews only have allegiance for one coun try: Israel.
Jews will happily sell out America, ship your jobs overseas, make you the target of terrorist attacks and spend your tax money on settlements in the west bank.
Isn't it time American foreign policy went back to serving America instead of Israel?
If a Jew tells you he is a patriot of America he is lying. To the Jew only Israel matters. After all Israel is the "homeland" of God's Chosen People.
You ask your Jew boss "Why are you outsourcing my job? Don't you know I have a family to feed?" The Jew may say any forked tongue reply but his mind is thinking "You weren't Chosen By God like the Jews, who gives shit about your job!"
I'm glad to hear it. At least some states are sticking to their intentions of getting the money they were screwed out of, or screwed themselves out of.
*begin offtopic*
And yes, we need the money. The current governer has decided that his priorities are with the suburbanites, further widening the schism between upper and lower class.
(BALLMER)TAX CUTS! TAX CUTS! TAX CUTS!(/BALLMER)
*end offtopic*
Also a fellow Minnesotan (and proud to be one), I can see why they chose to settle the suit. It may not have helped the little guy, but given Microsoft more or less got off from the Federal Government, chances of this suit succeeding are very slim. Also - MS has been paying out CASH for quite a few of it's settlements - from the article "Microsoft previously paid $1.55 billion to settle similar suits in nine other states and the District of Columbia."
Hopefully this will result in that type of settlement and not the "free educational software" [which is ironic as the suit is because Microsoft was a monopoly - letting them put their software in schools only increases the monopoly].
There is always a frontier where there is an open and willing mind
Hahahahahaaaa.
YOU FAIL IT! See above for details.
This leaves us with 24 more states that have not come to any decision or have not gone after Microsoft.
Minnesota's citizens were overcharged between $10 to $70 a year. 9.7 million licenses were overcharged from 1994 to 2001. Silicon Valley
Microsoft attorneys said the company had done nothing wrong...
Then why settle even before the plaintiffs even finished putting on their case before the jury?
Could it be the case was compelling?
Opera Watch - An Opera browser blog.
There was other software available. The desktop users may have not wanted to try and learn new/other software or had an IT dept. that was willing to administer multiple party apps., point being that we should learn to live with our decisions instead of suing over them... Something to think about.
I'm from Minnesota and lived there during those times, furthermore I used lots of Microsoft software... it's a shame I didn't pay for all of it.
Source, top of p6
:-)"
Linus admitted it in an e-mail, July 1991,
"I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu)... (My emphasis)
I'd like to know what features most people want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them
Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)
Bad luck, fanbois
Cost of doing business.
I'm not the only one who immediately knew what the settlement terms are.
Free software for schools, and $5 dollars off your next X-box purchase.
And probably a few million for the cash-strapped state.
"Toss them a bone."
It works every time. And it's back to business as usually for our favorite megamonopoly.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
NO, YUO!
Yep, i agree. Will someone please address this issue? i know we live in a time when a law suit is both a legit way to "right a wrong" and a way to intimidate, hush, or exact financial ruin upon someone.
How long will MS keep paying what looks to be hush money to make problems go away before someone notices that they are not chaging?
That is, of course, only one issue...i'm worried about what nberardi is worried about: at what point will legit suits against MS get tossed out because it looks/smells like another "let's hit MS's deep pockets" suit?
Why, so that some foreign corporation pushing Linux could come in and take away more American jobs by pushing inferior products? Fact is, Microsoft got to where they are today by making better products that people wanted.
So thats pretty much an admission of guilt, isn't it? As well as a simple fine, wouldn't it make sense for the law to introduce checks and balances to prevent companies taking advantage like this again? What is to stop Microsoft overcharging and just paying fines? Oops, they did it again...
Microsoft will give Minnesota 700,000 copies of Microsoft Bob.
aHahahahaha.
Further FAILURE has been added to your account. See above for details.
You currently stand at:
FAILURE: THOROUGH
hmmm, maybe they should poll how many ./ users pay for M$ software....heh, i know i don't pay unless i can't get it free.
-Pizentios
Sharing something personal for a sec.
I notice how it always brings a smile to my face when I see that little borg drone in the top index of frontpage newsitems. The thought of having a 300+ replies in an immense MS Flamewar to read through just makes me a happy man. This is why I read slashdot.
Does anybody ever experience the phenomenon where you close a browser with slashdot in it, but you keep internetting and the first new browserpage you open is slashdot again, not realizing it was the one you just closed?
Or try reading about it in the local paper the StarTribune story.
You're right. It does not specify that it will be paid in cash, but one would assume so for several reasons:
1. Other recent lawsuit actions. MS recently settled 2 other lawsuits for a total of 2.04 billion dollars [1.6 billion Sun, 440 million Intertrust]
2. Non-Cash Settlements have hurt MS. When MS settled with the DoJ and some states in November, provisions in the settlement prevented MS from engaging in exclusive contracts that would prohibit software developers or PC makers from using competing products [source - news.com].
3. Settlements with some states have been for software and like, but some [for example California which settled for 1.1 billion], the money is available to claim if you want (a cash settlement).
I would bet the settlement with be for a decent amount of cash, but you have to claim it and the unclaimed Cash goes back to MS [like California and Florida's settlements.
There is always a frontier where there is an open and willing mind
What are you implying!
I'm shocked and appalled that someone would be so gauche as to suggest that experienced computer users are very likely to pay nothing for software because they know where to find warez and how to apply cracks.
It's be like saying we don't give a damn about a bunch of dipshit bands whose songs we could freely download in a thousand different ways! Perhaps if we had'nt been taken advantage of so much in high school we wouldn't feel like this was our due!
Supposedly this was Gates rejoinder to Steve Jobs when the latter said, "We're better than you." Gates knows in this case that throwing a bit of cash to Minnesota to settle the suit doesn't really matter, either. It's the same Machiavellian insight as to what it takes to win his grand strategic goals at the cost of a few tactical losses. "Oh, I over charged you for the years between 1994 and 2001? So sorry. Here's a 30% refund in 2004. Thanks for the 70% I get to keep! (And the time I needed to eliminate my competition, hehe...)".
Generally, bash is superior to python in those environments where python is not installed.
And I wonder who did the pricing comparisons and research before buying this overpriced software.
If that was done, then where is the reasoning to complain?
Shop smart, shop S-MART.
-- The box said Windows 2000 or better... so I installed Linux
Where settlement, read 'Microsoft agrees to give away some of its products (which it will claim are worth a total of severl billion dollars when really its plastic and amounts to potential lost sales) to schools where it hopes to lock in students at an early age (i.e those lost sales are actually an investment at Microsofts advantage).' - for example whats better: give 10,000 copies of office to schools as part of a settlement, or give 10,000 copies of OpenOffice (essentially identical) to schools and Microsoft can give a sum of money to someone else?
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Take the number of vehicles in the field, (A), and multiply it by the probable rate of failure, (B), then multiply the result by the average
out-of-court settlement, (C).
A times B times C equals X...
If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.
If x is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.
--- Hot Shot City is particularly good.
I don't know about anyone else but I still have not received my CA settlement money. Paper work I sent in almost six months ago has not produced a check. I guess we have to bring up a lawsuit to get then to pay the money they already own us from the previous law suit.
I have been waiting for vouchers from the settlement with California for quite some time and they are still not here! The settlement was supposedly approved by the court on January 10, 2003.
It is now far from the time originally promised for the distribution of the vouchers. I have seen the deadlines and distribution times change twice at the official website.
I can not help but feel that part of their plan is to s-t-r-e-t-c-h the process out as long as possible so that people forget about the vouchers. I originally held off on a new system purchase because I wanted to use my voucher, but have since given up.
Lets hope that Minnesota's settlement will be a bit more timely.
This case is just a money grab. Whether or not MS is a monopoly, they don't overcharge for their software.
I'd like to settle with Microsoft, where do I sue?
You people should sue the county, they have no right to settle, and in secret? WTF? Are you people all stupid? You will see nothing, they should be forced to trial, and YOU ALL should receive the money DIRECTLY, not through rebates, cold hard CASH back!
The government will just use any money to EXPAND, hire more government people and then your taxes will go up when the money is gone but the people still want to get paid.
If you don't get direct cash, you are just plain stupid people.
Ummm... The DemPublicans?
Or is it the Larouche party?
Maybe he's a libertarian! Yeah, that's it!
Who says Panther isn't overpriced? Since MS Office costs a lot more, is it overpriced? Isn't "overpriced" judged by the market? Ah, but they're in trouble for vandalizing the market, aren't they? It's not as simple as you portray it.
:-)
Anyway, how much did your School District, Federal, State, and Local government blow on MS software last year? Find out and try to calculate how much free and open source software can save for YOU in tax burden alone!
Why and who would do that? Just because boeing is dominant in the us big long haul market, does that mean docking it 10 % so that its competitors can catch up.
Stupid idiot. And god knows why the mods modded it up.
I'll keep your "advice" in mind next time Slashdot has a "Linux needs, in order to..." article.
No, the car was the FORD Pinto.
(and it is the subject of the book "Unsafe at any speed.")
Ford made a calculated decision that the cost of paying out for death resulting from the poorly designed car would be less than the cost of recalling/replacing/repairing the defective cars. Rather nasty really, imho.
Presumably M$ will want to pay whatever fine it is in 'tokens' for free software. When you eventually got your 'free' software could you not then return it unopened for a refund in real money? ... just a thought
I wonder if those who believe Might Is Right ever wonder if they Might Be Wrong...
so sad that microsoft can literally buy out whoever they want...