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Microsoft Settles Iowa Antitrust Case
ForestRangerBob writes "Comes v. Microsoft is over after Microsoft agreed to a settlement. The class action lawsuit alleged that Iowa consumers had been overcharged for Microsoft products for a decade owing to Microsoft's monopoly of the market. Predictably, the lawyers are about to get a big payday and 'the software giant will certainly be on the hook for millions of dollars, some of which may end up helping Iowa school kids. Average consumers will probably end up with a few bucks or a coupon for a free operating system upgrade, but the real winners will no doubt be the lawyers — the team prosecuting the case has already earned $60 million in legal fees from a 2004 case in Minnesota that charged Microsoft with similar offenses.'"
When I first tried to read the comments, I got /.'s familiar "nothing to see here..." message, which also describes the site that hosted the documents from the Iowa case. Going to the site hosting the documents now results in a login request.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Average consumers will probably end up with a few bucks or a coupon for a free operating system upgrade
No, that's worth WAAAAAY too much. The consumers will get a free Microsft Vista (tm) mousepad.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Well duh.. even the losing side's laywers get paid well.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Not...
Almost makes me wish I was a lawyer. Almost.
A coupon so Microsoft can increase sales of more copies of windows.
Boy, that sure showed Microsoft.
http://saveie6.com/
To be fair, the lawyers should have to take their cut in coupons for Microsoft products, just like everyone else will.
âoeAny society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
NAH! That's objective reporting at it's best. NO bias at ALL!
But... but... it's the ultimate. No price is too high!
Developers: We can use your help.
Class action lawsuits are one of the most mis-used legal tactics in the country. Look at ANY class action lawsuit against ANY company. The 'remedy' afforded to consumers is on the same level as a few bucks in rebates: Most people don't bother with jumping through the hoops (and be sure and include the SKU from the inner flap of the outer box you just threw away and a certified copy of your birth certificate) and the companies know this. They don't amount to anything anyway. It's just an accountng trick. But the lawyers, oh, my goodness. Millions of dollars to the law firms for "all their hard work." What a crock. The kids of Iowa will see nothing tangible. /rant
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
Wow, I never knew you could sue people if for overcharging. This is great. Now I am going to go sue that burger place i just ate at for charging me $10 for a burger, when it obviously should have cost six dollars (according to Carl's Jr.)
And for some reason, I thought we won the cold war...
that is when the people who are dissatisfied with MS and how the courts fail to create fair business practices from them all switch to Linux or Apple.... THAT would be justice
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
This is only a bit more of a punishment than the fine from the EU of a couple ten thousand dollars a day.
And what else do they have to give out? More Microsoft products! Either a voucher, or software for schools. And from that comes support contracts, future upgrades, additional add-ons, all which will cost the schools and/or users additional money.
Why do courts and defendants even allow this? If I cut myself with a razor because it was used shoddy construction and a blade wasn't secured properly, and sue the company, why would I want another razor from them? I may get the razor free, but I still wind up having to buy blades for it later.
Granted, they aren't saying they don't want Windows, just that they were overcharged, but this still seems ludicrous.
"Bet the states are licking their chops now... with Vista Ultimate pegged at 399.99. talk about overcharging."
I doubt it would qualify. After all, there are three editions below it, each of which will successfully run the vast majority of Vista-compatible products. In no way are you forced to buy the top of the line. You'd have to argue they are overcharging for the "core" or basic product. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. That's a different question.
So when do we start the law suits against the lawyers who screw the average guy by filing lawsuits on their behalf and then making all the profits and getting us coupons? Seems like a lawsuit that the jury couldn't help but award to us.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Actually, as it turned out, they were helpful — they helped spur the development of K12OS...
Just junk food for thought...
I have other common sense solutions to all the other problems too.
these cases really upset me.
I get mail all the time showing the lawyers are going to make 4 to 16 million dollars and as a member of the class I'll get less than a hundred bucks. I do not join the class. I know ultimately, i'm going to be paying higher prices because of this crap.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
I say its time for MS to be forced to publish their "standards" and APIs.
I disagree. I think that Microsoft has to be stopped from using anti-competitive tactics in their way of doing business and the rest will take care of itself. Let them keep their junk, closed source, buggy operating system.
I say one set of prices for EVERYONE published publicly with no contract tie-ins to any other MS or competing product coming into the equation will take care of everything!
Promised to give, you mean. And what he promises to do with the money in no way mitigates the way he got the money in the first place - it would be like saying Pablo Escobar should be free from criticism if he gave his money to AIDS and caner research. It's also worth pointing out that they are big backers of the Discovery Institute, who are big backers of forcing Intelligent Design into science classrooms.
Did you try Google? http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recn um=Okidata-C5300
c id=135&chid=10&pdflag=&prid=407&OSId=5&languageId= 1
It's a postscript printer, you shouldn't need drivers. You do need a custom PPD file, though: http://europe.oki.com/fcgi-bin/public.fcgi?pid=6&
Both of those came from the printer's page on linux-printing.
God save our Queen, and Heaven bless The Maple Leaf Forever!
Yes I know all you /.ers are gonna bash me for this, but quit acting like MS is the only corporation that buys market share. Do you think automobiles still run on gasoline because car makers think it is a good idea? No, they run on gasoline b/c Exxon/Mobil has paid for them to run on gasoline. Do you think Gov. Perry (Texas) passed a law that requires all pre-adolescent girls to get vaccinated against an STD b/c he thinks it is in their best interest? No, he passed the law b/c Merck gave him a s**t load of money. I know its fun to bash MS b/c they throw sacks of money around to stay at the top of the market, but there are hundreds of companies that do it, and thousands that would if they had the money.
02/13/2006 FUNDS RECEIVED *type: *DEPOSIT $251.00
$251.00 is serious money from Microsoft Corp, NOT "Average consumers will probably end up with a few bucks or a coupon".
Wouldn't it be nice if the judge could rule that the public good would be best served by seeing the case through, and did indeed ruled so in this case?
This would be a valid point were it not for the fact that Microsoft uses its vast market power to exclude alternatives from being visible at the point of sale. By ensuring that the likes of Dell, HP/Compaq, IBM, Acer and Gateway don't offer alternative OS choices through threats of massive price hikes via their OEM contracts they make it virtually impossible for someone to purchase a brand name PC without purchasing Windows with it.
Have you ever tried buying a PC without Windows? There are only two ways to do it. Buy a whitebox from a small retailer or stumble upon the occasional PC with pre-loaded linux that is usullay hidden deep in the bowels of the websites of online retailers such as Dell and HP.
In the first case a lot of people are hesitant to buy non brand name PC's because they incorrectly assume that they will get better quality if they choose a brand they "know" (read: have heard of).
In the second case it is usually impossible to find any PC loaded with linux just by connecting to a retailers main page and just clicking. You usually have to already know that they offer a Linux PC and then have enough ability to search and find it on the site. Often you can't even find it using the search tools on the site and you have to do a site: search in Google, which most people don't even know you can do.
You can't just go pick a PC and then choose between Windows and Linux, which is how it would work were there a level playing field.
This is why people are always "bashing on Microsoft". If they had faith in their own product then they would have no problem with competing fairly against Linux.
Clearly they don't have faith in their products, so why should we?
"You can't fight in here, this is the war room!"
The Minnesota settlement got my wife and me a refurb Epson 2400 scanner, a cheap HP inkjet (both linux compatible) and three LinuxStore "Tux" keyboards from Cheapbytes.
I'll take it. But, yes, I would rather be using IBM OS/4 HyperDrive today.
Are you suggesting that Microsoft does not use their dominant position in the market place to enormous amounts of pressure major vendors to not offer Linux as an alternative? Do you really believe that Microsoft is willing to compete head to head with Linux on equal footing? Why should they be allowed to threaten OEMs with huge price hikes if they dare to offer alternative products?
As for Walmart, as far as I am aware they were selling absolutely crappy ultra-cheapo white boxes without any sort of ability to advise potential customers or offer much in the way of after sales support. Considering that 90% of the planet do not have Walmart stores anyway I don't see what they did or didn't do as being particularly relevant. When HP starts offering a choice between pre-installed OS's I will take notice.
I have noticed that HP have very recently started offering laptops with nothing but FreeDOS on them (along with a Suse Linux 10 Certified tag). Whether that is due to the widespread disappointment with Vista remains to be seen.
I've also noticed that while most major suppliers had removed Windows XP as an option on their new PCs for launch day it now appears that XP is back on sale, and in a lot of cases as the default option.
"You can't fight in here, this is the war room!"