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Iowa Antitrust Case Costs Microsoft $255M
The judge in charge has approved the payout for the case, which was settled seven months ago. Iowa citizens will get up to $179 million in refunds and the attorneys will get $75 million, $8 million of which covers expenses. There's another $1 million in there for legal aid. Individual consumers pocket very little: they can file for $16 for each copy of Windows or MS-DOS purchased over a 12-year period, and $29 for Office. Such a payout would serve as a deterrent only if all 50 states had sued and won similar amounts. Alone it's a slap on the wrist.
MS gets stung for millions, yeah! But lawyers get millions, boo! But MS gets stung for millions, yeah! But lawyers get millions, boo! But... head explodes.
ccalam - acoustic versions of new songs.
Who says it's "alone"? Here in Minnesota in '04 MS bought me a cheap printer, refurb Epson scanner, and three LinuxStore keyboards.
Since when is a quarter of a billion dollars a slap on the wrist? Sure, it's not earth-shattering, but come on, man!
hmm.
if they wanted to hurt MS then they should of added a zero to that sum.
or should it to be 2 zeros?
Just like the EU antitrust people, the Iowans are only doing this because Microsoft is not a local company. Why do they hate Washington state so much?
Pocket change for Billy Boy
Yes, it would be cheap at half the price.
I think you mean, cheap at twice the price, though.
Cost of 7.5 million x $10 dollar rebate vouchers for a team of attorneys: $75 million
Look on the senior partner's face when 25 trailer trucks full of printed rebate vouchers enters the parking lot: priceless.
There are some jokes money can't buy. For everything else, there's Slashdot.
And the attorneys will get $75 million, $8 million of which covers expenses.
I call bullshit, why are they getting this when their expenses are significantly lower and it isn't part of the money given out to everybody who bought Windows?
I'd be seriously pissed if I found out lawyers were skimming massive amounts from public settlements on behalf of my state or county. Where's it going eh?
Thank god I bought 14,572 copies of windows in the past 12 years.
14,572x16=233,152
4.)Profit!!
Or: how I wish I was a class action lawyer.
assignment != equality != identity
As Microsoft once again abuse their monopoly position to stack the OOXML ISO vote.
And a nice little earner for the Attorneys .. $75M
a deterrent only if all 50 states had sued and won
Or just maybe, if M$ lost a FEDERAL antitrust case? Nah, THAT could never happen...
you had me at #!
Anyone from Iowa want to buy all my old DOS floppies for a buck apiece? /I kid
"Since when is a quarter of a billion dollars a slap on the wrist? Sure, it's not earth-shattering, but come on, man!"
Slashdot readers are millionaires who read Slashdot while sitting on the decks of their yachts or flying in their personal jets.
The point people are making is that the fine is far too small to encourage Microsoft to stop being adversarial toward its customers. Anyhow, I'm guessing that Bill Gates would rather be poor than be good towards customers. Sometimes the adversarial behavior seems to me to be the real purpose behind his management philosophy.
Actually, most people won't do the paperwork, or won't have their receipts. The actual money paid by Microsoft will be less than the maximum amount. From the article:
"Similar cases against Microsoft in other states have resulted in huge unclaimed portions of the settlement and that is expected to happen in Iowa, too, said Microsoft lawyer Rich Wallis.
"As a result, Microsoft agreed in the settlement to provide half of any unclaimed amount to Iowa public schools in the form of vouchers that can be used to buy computer equipment."
Other news: Twitter wrote a front-page Slashdot story!
DoYouLikeWorms, Yes, in some cases I think worms are interesting. Why do you ask?
I'm not a fan of lawyers in general, but it's not as if Billy G would have ponied up the dosh without them, is it? There'd have been no settlement to start with and the people would have got nothing.
Only three things are certain; death, taxes, and apocryphal quotations - Ben Franklin.
... and hang it high for everyone to see as a reminder that lawyers
always win more.
How many of the residents do you suppose will actually cash in?
Are you required to be put on a spam list to collect? Probably.
For the $16 dollars you get, what is being gotten from you?
Could have windows been sold for $16 dollars less to begin with?
Microsoft is not a bottomless pit of money. With all the lawsuits
and judgements against them It'd be interesting to see where there
books really are. At least to know how much more they can sacrifice
or risk in future uncompetitive wrong doings.
Just how many more laws can they afford to break?
More important, how is it that you can over charge so to afford to break the law?
Its the MS cycle that needs to be addresses. Only the Legal system has no clue or care.
A lot of people are scoffing at the legal payout: 75m (67m effectively, without expenses). While it's incredibly high out of context, it actually makes sense over the course of a 6 year ordeal. I don't know how they structured the award settlement with the firm, but I'll simply go with the idea that it was purely labour-based.
Assume that the average legal fee at the firm is about USD 500 per hour. 67m buys 134k hours which equates to roughly 15.29 consecutive years of labour for one person that works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. I'm guessing this likely had a legal team of 10+ people. If we were to take it at the low estimate of 10 people, that's about 1.5 years of work per team member on the suit - or ~547 working days spread over 6 years.
That sounds a lot more reasonable to me. Plus, class-action isn't all it's cut out to be. Mergers and acquisitions can be much more lucrative.
Fundamental problem with the monopoly abuse of MSFT is that the customers are not demanding better interoperability. The concept of interoperability is not all that hard for customers to comprehend. In fact people have always demanded interoperability. But MSFT successfully convinced the customers, interoperability is synonymous with MSFT compatibility. Only when customers demand true interoperability, things will change. All the law suits and antitrust actions will either strengthen the hand of MSFT by pushing people who are wary of govt regulation into the MSFT camp.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Why are the lawyers paid in one full lump sum? What is the incentive for anyone, MSFT, the lawyers and the state to publicize the settlement and make sure all eligible customers actually get something? Why can't they make the lawyer fees a percentage of actual money paid out as compensation? Then these lawyers will be working overtime to publicize and make it easy to file and claim the refund. As it stands it benefits no one but the lawyers.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Thats just a cost of doing business for a company that large. Fines at that level are almost meaningless. They spend more on an AD campaign, and they got free press with the suit.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
When did we got casted out from USA?
.... wow.
and they call me a fanboi.. -- mac fanbois are more sophisticated?
B.
Every experiment which ends in a big bang is a good experiment.
Your honesty is refreshing.
Clear, Dark Skies
Congratulations on being an exact copy of twitter and the "Shitdot Sheeple", loser.
when MS is on 90-95% of the world's desktops and OSX 4% and MS Office dominates on both platforms, then - in a coldly preactical sense - MS compatability is what matters. what the user doesn't need, the user doesn't ask for.
"Such a payout would serve as a deterrent only if all 50 states had sued and won similar amounts. Alone it's a slap on the wrist."
-1, Obvious
Pre-digested stories for the lazy, irrelevant stuff.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
The court is out of line on this one. The court (and by extension, government) needs to learn to keep its meddling fingers off of business! Did they ever think how MS is going to pay for this? They'll just up the cost of Windows and Office, thus creating even greater profits then had the courts left them alone!
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
This case was brought against MS in 2000. It is now 2007.
So much for the right to a speedy trial.
So much for relevance.
What about alternatives? Well, of course, the only other computer on the planet is a Mac. But that's a Mac, not a PC, they're different, the adverts say so, so they must be incompatible. I mean, expecting a Mac to be compatible with a PC (ie. Windows) is as stupid as expecting all of those Nintendo 64 cartridges to work in a Wii, or for a Playstation CD to work in an XBox. When you're brought up to *know* that computers are incompatible. That computers crash all of the time. That computers are insecure. That computers suddenly become rubbish after 2 years so you need to get a new one. Then the compatibility offered by Microsoft lock-in is the best you know, because nobody cares about all of that technical mumbo-jumbo, it's OBVIOUS that Word documents are compatible when everyone you know uses them, and Jabber certainly isn't compatible when you can't talk to your MSN friends (well, admiteddly there are MSN gateways for Jabber, but then it's just a hassle to use a different program which doesn't support all of the vast archive of animated smileys you've accrued when MSN Messenger comes by default). Who cares if you are forced to buy new versions of Windows and Office every few years? By that time your computer has mysteriously gone from being the thing your kid kept going on about and made you spend the extra hundred quid for a better something-or-other, to being rubbish piece of crap that nothing decent runs on and is a waste of money compared to the newer ones that your kid keeps going on about, trying to make you spend an extra hundred quid for a better something-or-other (and, of course, kids know more about these things), and that comes with the new Windows version and the new Office version so there's no problem.
The reason there are so many Mac-induced heart-attacks is because someone uses a Mac for the first time and they think they see how good Macs are and how bad PCs are, when in fact they are seeing what a non-Microsoft system is like. There are obviously some problems, like programs which won't run, but this is a MAC, it is different, so they're not *problems* they're just inevitable. Of course it isn't going to run the same programs, that's as stupid as expecting an XBox 360 disc to run in a Playstation 3. The reason there are less Linux-induced heart-attacks is because Linux is running ON THE SAME BOX. Common sense might suggest that being able to use the same computer as Windows used to use is an advantage to Linux, but what it actually does it make people focus on the problems more. Why the hell can't this Linux play your games? It is the same PC, and using the same logic as the Mac scenario; a Playstation 3 disc should run in a Playstation 3, an XBox disc should run in an XBox, therefore a PC-CDROM (as they are labelled) should run in a PC with a CDROM drive.
It takes some real thinking outside the box to manipulate people as well as the likes of Microsoft ("That's what computers DO silly!" *presses reset button*) and Apple ("PPC is better than Intel crap, Jobs says so and he has some kind of pie chart! Oh wait, now he says Intel is better, and he has a bar chart this time!" Pure genius, plus they realised that not all of their customers are ignorant, so they made sure to carry on offering PPC support, like their Classic support on the OSX switch and the 68k support on the PPC switch to make sure they didn't alienate anyone. Very well executed). It is in corporate interest
"Moreover, I'd like to know how you'd "fix" the system as it stands"
Here's one suggestion: Let the jury make two deliberations. First, for the award for the plaintiff; second, for the plaintiff's lawyers. That way, if the plaintiff's lawyer wants an uneducated jury - as many of them do in order to extract a jackpot lottery award - (s)he might be less likely to receive such a sympathetic deliberation that lavishly enriches him.
Yes, many of them take a risk with millions of expenses - but why? To secure justice? For the pittances ultimately paid to the plaintiffs? Or, as a calculated risk that could produce enormously outsized returns? If my memory serves me correctly, one of the lawyers involved in the tobacco litigation from Pensacola, Fl received a $900 million contingency fee. Want to guess what the individual plaintiffs received?
People in Iowa run out and get Microsoft products rather than Apple, or Linux, or Open Office, thereby making Microsoft a monopoly, Microsoft gets hit with $255 million, which will be paid for by their customers and shareholders, the people of Iowa get a little bit back on their purchases, and the lawyers get $75 million. Will someone please explain to me why this is a good thing. (Except a good thing for lawyers, I understand that part).
Typical class-action style case (I don't know if this was officially class-action, but it has the same characterstics), where the lawyers get rich and those in the "class" get next-to-nothing. These types of cases are a waste of time.
The results of the settlement are bullshit too.
"Individual consumers pocket very little: they can file for $16 for each copy of Windows or MS-DOS purchased over a 12-year period, and $29 for Office."
Why should anyone get a partial refund for MS-DOS? Is there ANY evidence that Microsoft overcharged for MS-DOS? They weren't declared a "monopoly" until 2000, long after they were selling MS-DOS, and the product that was ruled to have monopoly status was the desktop version of Windows, not MS-DOS (nor Office or any other product). Nobody has made a credible argument that Microsoft had a monopoly in the MS-DOS days. This entire case was ridiculous now that I look at this.
-- "I never gave these stories much credence." - HAL 9000
It's the defendant (here, Microsoft) who has that right, and you still have to invoke it. If you want, you can waive it.
Further, it's in Microsoft's interests to stall these as long as possible, because that'll cost the plaintiff a lot of money in litigation expenses and deter people from suing them.
That said, at least this one is better than the previous ones. Other lawyers were settling for a few millions for themselves and coupons for everyone else, with the rest going to buy Microsoft software for the local schools.
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
Once upon a time you posted so fine
You threw the shills a dime in your flame, didnt you?
Peopled call, say, beware troll, youre bound to fall
You thought they were all shillin' you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was moddin' out
Now you dont post so loud
Now you dont shill so proud
About having to be waitin' for your next post.
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without karma
Like a complete moron
Like a stoning troll?
This may not be a whole lot of money for a company with Microsoft's cash flow, but it's still good news. Even if it doesn't exactly bankrupt them, Microsoft has been taken to court, convicted, and made to pay over their crimes. That has to count for something. Moreover, lots of people will hear of this. And that is probably the most important result: that people will be told that Microsoft is, in fact, a company that has engaged in illegal business practices. And it's not just a bunch of fringe figures saying it; a court agrees with them. And the "bunch of loonies" fought and got you back some of the money Microsoft cheated you out of.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
I imagine a lot of eligible Iowans won't be bothered to file for their refunds. What happens to that unclaimed money? Does Microsoft get to keep it? Does it go into some kind of trust or escrow?
-Rich
die you flesh sucking fuck scum
Anyone who collects this money is a leech. No one forced you to pay too much for anything.
You mean that communist open-sores project called Linsux? Nope, I will stick with Windows. The only reason Windows is attacked and not your precious linsux is you linsux loving fucktards don't want your precious communist project to have a bad reputation, so you choose to attack Windows by creating trojans and not for linsux. All of you linsux loving fucktards should end it all by slitting your fucking wrists.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."