Microsoft Critic Received $9.75m After Settlement

An anonymous reader writes "Just this month, Microsoft paid almost $20 million to the Computer and Communications Industry Association to make an anti-trust lawsuit go away. FT.com has just revealed that *half* of that payment was pocketed by Ed Black, the president of CCIA and one of MS's fiercest opponents over antitrust issues. His payment was approved by the CCIA board, which includes Sun Microsystems, Yahoo and Oracle. And here's a quote from this article at Groklaw: Could this be why Nokia quit the CCIA right after the settlement was announced, saying matters were not handled "in the proper way"?"

Comments

OSDL and RedHat are CCIA members too

[nathanh]

His payment was approved by the CCIA board, which includes Sun Microsystems, Yahoo and Oracle.

And OSDL and RedHat. Was the submitter trying to imply complicity between Sun and Microsoft by omitting those other members from that list?

Re:Hmmm...

[Slashamatic]

Could this be an unwarranted inference on the part of the poster?

It is a suggestion not an inference and a legitimate one at that.

Re:Corruption

[SorcererX]

Nokia is not a Scandinavian country. Nokia is a Finnish company. Finland is not part of Scandinavia, Scandinavia is Norway, Sweden and Denmark. It is a common misinterpretation to consider Scandinavia the same as the "Nordic countries" which include Finland and Iceland. The term "Scandinavian" was created prior to Finland's independence from the Soviet Union.

Members == members of the board

[SmallFurryCreature]

Could it perhaps be that Redhat and OSDL and in fact most of the members are not members of the board of CCIA?

That would be how these things are usually organised.

Re:Corruption

[LucidBeast]

No no, Nokia is the second largest city in Finland formerly known as Espoo (my fair home town). There used to be a town called Nokia in Finland and some say it still exists, but like Santas village - nobody knows where it lays.

Please keep buying Nokia phones and you help keep our city tax rate down.

As for corruption. You can hardly buy a cup of coffee in Finland for your client without getting the local equivalent of IRS breathing down your neck.

Hell

[gosand]

Where can I go and get a degree in being a corporate board member or a CEO? They seem to be low skill, high pay jobs. And if you get fired, you get a firing bonus in the millions.

Hell. All you have to do is sign a deal with the Devil.

Re:Everyone has his price

[TarrVetus]

"What's your problem ? Just take the money and still make that lawsuit. I bet MS won't ask you to return the money."

Nope, you can't do that. A settlement is a contractual agreement saying, "we give you money and you can't sue us."

A person close to the CCIA said, "if anything, this may boost the CCIA's ability to recruit new members." This settlement sounds less like a financial move and more like the CCIA just wanted to improve its relations with Microsoft and make their organization a 'safer investment.' Companies are more likely to join them now that they are no longer fighting the #1 software developer.

Re:Everyone has his price

[GreenKiwi]

My understanding was that it wasn't just "a man", but George Bernard Shaw.

E-mail Adress

[goatan]

Here's ed black's e-mail address so you can practice your right to free speech tell him what you think of corruption

eblack@ccianet.org