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Evidence Surfaces That MS Violated 2002 Judgement
whoever57 writes "In the Comes Vs. Microsoft case, the plaintiffs believe they have found evidence that Microsoft has failed to fully disclose APIs to competitors. If true, this would mean that Microsoft has violated the 2002 judgement. This information has become available since the plaintiffs have obtained an order allowing them to disclose Microsoft's alleged misbehavior to the DOJ ('appropriate enforcement and compliance authorities')."
There are some graphic capabilities (in gdi.exe) that exist only in newer operating systems. Not using them would force one to use (supposedly slower) hand-written functions (by example, filling application areas with a gradient is not available in Windows NT, but is in Windows XP).
If those functions would really exist, but could be only interfaced to using an "internal" API, then Microsoft products could have faster "on screen" viewing compared to the competition.
...and aA convicted monopolist can't change its spot overnight." :-)
At least in the US, GM could not require GM oil, coolant, or service... not because of consumer demands, but because of the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act of 1976.
I'm amazed how many American vehicle owners have never heard of this puppy, y'all should read it sometime. And the next time your new car salesman says anything about the warranty, you'll know where you can tell him to stick his head.
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
Actually, if any Slashdot "Editors" read the actual document, you'd see that the document is actually favorable, and says that MS is making good headway with documenting and hand-holding their competitors. The document says that MS has somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 people working to get this documentation done, and that there have been no substantive complaints about MS's compliance.
Read The Fucking Article, Slashdot editors.
I'm not sure what the law in the U.S. is but here in the U.K. you can go to jail for contempt.
According to the Office of Fair Trading http://www.oft.gov.uk/
"The maximum penalty for contempt of a county court order is two years imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine"
So a simple way to calculate a fine would be to calculate how much money MS has (including financial assests) and double it, if they don't pay up send the baliffs in.
When they still don't pay up hold them for contempt of that, and then imprison whoever was responsible for a couple of years.
Unfortunaltely the legal system has a problem with coruption. If you have money you are allowed to break laws it would seem.
Still if they laugh at fines, let then laugh at it from inside a prison cell.
I think slashdot agrees with me, the CAPTCHA word is "detain"
That is not necessarily true. Those convicted of a felony can't vote. So restricting voting rights is a punishment of sorts even in the US. This site has some more information by state for loss of voting rights (http://www.righttovote.org/index.asp).
GENERATION 27: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
The right to vote can be revoked by a court (outside of any other punishment); it can be revoked automatically in some cases, as a bonus to a conviction; or it can be revoked for medical reasons.
However, the right to vote and a parking ticket you get in a foreign country have as much in common as a patent and the API for an operating system (not much).
We all agree one major platform is better than many wildly different platforms right?
I don't
One processor architecture (x86) is better than four completely different
I disagree
and one computer platform (PC) is better than many (even Apple understood that.. and effectively sells shiny PC-s loaded with OSX right now)
I don't agree here either.
You will, if you have to develop software targeting multiple OS/CPU vs one (and I don't mean making a web page in Python or PHP, but actual programming, say C++).
No, having interoperability and standards is better than one major OS in my opinion.
Have you heard of why "design by committee" is bad? It's slow? It's the least common denominator of all benefits? The option that won't "offend" anyone?
"Convicted monopoly abuser". Monopolies aren't inherently illegal.
Maybe during the discovery, they had to access some documents that are internal and private to the company (*cough* copyrighted *cough*). As such, any use of those documents outside of the court (the very reason for which they were dug up) would be illegal.
For example, a judge can request you your hand-written journal if you are prosecuted for something, and he thinks this will help to reach a correct verdict. However, the content of your journal can not be used by anybody else, even if it was made public in court.
Also, there are some things (client data by example) which a corporation is forbidden to publish
(but all of those are just some hand-waving examples)
Disregarding the fact that "gdi.exe" doesn't exist in the NT ancestral line, the new functions are accessible quite easily. Pick up the most recent Platform SDK, and look up the docs. There's a number of defines that activate functions only available in newer versions of Windows. They're not enabled by default so you don't inadvertently make your app not compatible with Win2k, for example.
Are you kidding?
c rosoft#Appeal
... Microsoft is a company with an institutional disdain for both the truth and for rules of law that lesser entities must respect. It is also a company whose senior management is not averse to offering specious testimony to support spurious defenses to claims of its wrongdoing."
Do you even remember why the original senatance was overturned?
The appeals court ruled that Judge Jackson had an appearance of bias, because of his media statements. In the media, Judge Jackson made a series of statements, that I, personally, loved. Here's a quote for you:
"Following the trial's conclusion last June, Jackson's statements began appearing in news stories and books about the case. His views on Microsoft executives and the metaphors he used to describe the case troubled the appeals judges.
Among the examples, in the Jan. 8 issue of The New Yorker, Jackson said Microsoft founder Bill Gates "has a Napoleonic concept of himself and his company, an arrogance that derives from power and unalloyed success, with no leavening hard experience, no reverses." He added that company executives "don't act like grown-ups!"
Also in that book, Auletta writes that Jackson likened Microsoft's "proclamation of innocence to those of four members of the Newton Street Crew convicting in a racketeering, drug-dealing and murder trial he had presided over five years before."
Such sentiments drew the wrath of the appeals judges Tuesday.
"There are lots of things we think and feel about" the parties during a proceeding, said Chief Judge Harry Edwards. "The system would be a sham if all the judges were doing this."
The problem was the he got TOO angry. He basically "flipped out" legally, and Microsoft started to play nice, at least during appeals. If he had just kept his mouth shut, the judgment would have stood. http://news.com.com/2100-1001-253250.html
The appeals court overturned, "Judge Jackson's rulings against Microsoft on browser tying and attempted monopolization on grounds, that he gave off-the-record, but nevertheless disclosed, interviews to the news media during the case, and that Judge Jackson having opinions about the defendant was improper. "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Mi
In that sense, you might say that Microsoft's defense against contempt of court was shooting the moon. And it seemed to have worked out, in the short term. Here's what Jackson had to say, "Judge Jackson's response to this was that Microsoft's conduct itself was the cause of any "perceived bias"; Microsoft executives had "proved, time and time again, to be inaccurate, misleading, evasive, and transparently false.
Keep in mind that the appeals court did maintain Judge Jackson's findings of fact; that Microsoft did seek to misuse it's monopoly power to drastically damage the market for computer software.
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
Before mocking the poster perhaps you could do a little research, the transcript for the January 12 proceedings are online: http://www.iowaconsumercase.org/TP011207.txt