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Microsoft faces Monopoly Lawsuit (again)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the every-couple-years dept.

james_in_denver writes "Forbes magazine is reporting that Microsoft will be sued in California for predatory pricing. This lawsuit appears to differ from earlier challenges to MicroSoft's marketplace dominance by entertaining the possibility of a Class-Action lawsuit. This would allow individual users/licensee's to participate in the lawsuit. A notable quote from the full text states: "It's anticompetitive, it's predatory, and it denies consumers, and in this case taxpayers, the benefits of innovation that a free marketplace should provide,""

8 of 281 comments (clear)

  1. Allow individual users/licensee's to participate by scotay · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Translation: Lawyers get rich, users/licensees get worthless vouchers.

  2. Doesn't cut it anymore. by Chess_the_cat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Linux is free to anyone who wants it. All the apps are free. How can anyone claim Microsoft is a monopoly that unfairly prices its products? This argument doesn't work anymore. It's a free market. Don't like MS? There's a free alternative. Stop whining.

    --
    Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
  3. Re:Microsoft by kfg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is the market really free if the state of California tries to regulate it?

    If we're going to get into that topic it's worth noting that Microsoft only exists in its current form through governmental regulation.

    That horse left the barn the second they incorporated.

    Now they must render unto Caesar.

    KFG

  4. Looks like Califoria is look to steal some MS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful


    Same thing over and over again. State sues MS. MS challenges. MS Looses (the judges work for the state, right?)

    MS "pays" restitution in free liscences. MS is even more entretched.

    It's a dance called the:

    "The PR Microsoft Litigation CircleJerk shuffle".

    At the end of the dance the stains are a bit hard to get out, but the public gets it up the ass everytime.

  5. Low prices? by Silvertre · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake said the company's lawyers hadn't fully reviewed the lawsuit, but she defended the company's prices.

    "In fact," she said, "we've built our business on delivering innovative software at low prices, and have been the market leader in reducing prices while increasing the value contained in software."

    Since when is $100-$200 for an OS a 'low price'?

  6. *dons tinfoil hat* by theluckyleper · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I wonder if this will have any impact on the proceedings? "Independent auditors" recommend Open Source, suggesting that California could save $32 billion.

    Can't Microsoft point to reports like this and say, "Hey, look! There's competition!" These reports this might end up serving Microsoft, rather than OSS, in the end!

    --
    Visit the Game Programming Wiki!
  7. Re:Californian Justice... by hype7 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Some people like to say that the USA is the home of pure capitalism. However, that's an oversimplification of how our system really functions. I'd rather call it capitalism with gutters on either side of the bowling lane so that when something starts to go off course in a bad way, the law kicks in and makes sure that the bad shot both fails to score, and also cannot go further off course so that it impacts the scores on other lanes.


    So that's how the RIAA and MPAA can bring all those lawsuits to bear on US citizens?

    The only reason there are gutters is for the businesses to dump the little guys when they're done with them. The politicians are standing shoulder to shoulder with the big corps over this, too - that's why US drug prices remain at the highest levels in the western world, and why laws like the DMCA and the INDUCE Act will continue to make their way onto the books.

    So long as politicians keep get big $$$ from big business, there's going to be a severe tilt towards serving business interests as opposed to human interests. I'm surprised there haven't been overtures to ban political donations from corporations - I think it would fix a lot of problems.

    -- james
  8. And if this goes through? by mcc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It will result in the state settling for some relatively rediculously paltry sum, 50% of which will go to lawyers, and which will only reach consumers in the form of a $50 off coupon on any future Microsoft product they purchase.

    Seriously, is there any way whatsoever this case could end in anything resembling a victory for consumers?

    --
    Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts