Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft, Best Buy Face Racketeering Suit
15 judges of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals have unanimously reversed dismissal of a RICO class action suit against Microsoft and Best Buy, which claims the companies engaged in fraud in promoting Microsoft's MSN online service. (RICO is a statute originally intended to help prosecutors go after organized crime.) Quoting: "The case started after James Odom bought a PC-based laptop at a Contra Costa County Best Buy store. Data about the purchase was sent to Microsoft as part of a joint marketing agreement between the companies. Microsoft then signed Mr. Odom up for its MSN Internet service and, after a free trial period, began billing him for it." Howard Bashman's How Appealing blog has more details on the reversal, including a paraphrase from one of the appellate judges that "all blame rests with the U.S. Supreme Court for allowing the 'outlandish' result that a claim such as this can be pursued under RICO."
What problem are you paying Microsoft to fix that it created?
It's OS has free updates.
Office has free updates.
Their powertoys are free, and that remedies a large number of complaints about their software.
You pay your employees to write better code that supports IE7 and the actual HTML standard.
I'm sorry, I just don't seem to see where they are "making money by selling a solution to a problem that [they] created (or that [they] intentionally [allow] to continue to exist),"...
I wouldn't consider the mad hatter mad. Just reality impaired. He sure can make a mean cup of tea.
I have kdawson filtered out of slashdot view when I'm logged in. Sadly I wasn't logged in this time. What a horrible article. Overturned reversal of a dissenting opinion. I feel informed.