States and DoJ Divided On Microsoft Antitrust Success

Rob writes "Computer Business Review is reporting that the US Department of Justice and five States have declared themselves satisfied with the antitrust enforcement efforts taken against Microsoft despite a further seven States maintaining they have had 'little or no discernible impact in the marketplace.' While the US DoJ and five States — New York, Louisiana, Maryland, Ohio, and Wisconsin (The New York Group) — reported that the final judgments have succeeded in increasing competition to the benefit of consumers, seven States making up the California Group are not convinced."

Comments

The question is simple

[BadAnalogyGuy]

Are you more able today to buy a computer without a Microsoft OS than you were 4 years ago?

Re:The question is simple

[gatzke]

Your questions is ridiculous.

You always have had choices. Mac has always been there. There have always been linux shops that sell hardware. More expensive and less support, but you could do it.

How do you define "more able" to buy something? Price? Availability? Support? Number of vendors?

MS bundles products, closes interfaces, and forces new version upgrades. This is an abuse of monopoly power.

IANAL, but MS was declared a monopoly back around 2000. I don't think a judge ever declared them to no longer be a monopoly, so I assume that ruling stands.

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/2479.html

Re:The question is simple

[Ed Avis]

He didn't ask whether it is possible to buy a non-Microsoft PC. Of course it has always been possible. He asked how easy it is. This is a quite legitimate question, even if as you point out it includes several different factors such as price and number of vendors.

It's documented that Microsoft has entered into restrictive contracts with OEMs so they pay per PC sold, whether or not it includes Windows. Also that Microsoft has threatened vendors (e.g. IBM) with an increase in the price they pay for Windows and used this as a tool to stop vendors from including competitors' software they don't like. Some of these restrictive deals were replaced with similar ones that look better on paper but are much the same in practice (e.g. paying a Microsoft tax on each PC of a certain 'model' that was sold, so if a vendor wants to exclude Windows they must print new name badges and manuals). A simple injunctive remedy IHMO would be to require that Microsoft sell Windows licences at the same price to all vendors, and that the licence be paid for only if Windows is included with the PC.

You are quite right about the bundling of products etc. That is another example of monopoly power. It doesn't make the complaint about Microsoft preventing OEMs from offering Windows-free PCs any less valid.

Ah ha!

[morgan_greywolf]

Well, now we know which states Microsoft has the most paid lobbyists in.

Seriously, I don't see how the antitrust suit has had much bearing on Microsoft's behavior. They continue to act like a monopolist. Prices for Microsoft operating systems have actually gone UP, not down (despite prices for virtually everything else in their industry dropping) and their market share hasn't changed significantly in anyway -- when it has changed, it's been due to superior and/or cheaper products, such as all-in-one file servers with embedded OS, Linux, or improvements in Apple's Mac OS X.

Re:Oddly enough...

[Eponymous Bastard]

Would you count tampering with ISO approval process for OOXML to standardize something only they can implement as furthering their monopoly? Suddenly they can keep locking in documents from government bodies that require an ISO standard file format

Seriously, this has been on /. all week

Re:Oddly enough...

[ozmanjusri]

Well then you could provide us a list of wrongdoing from the past, let's say, a year?

I'll start.

1. Claiming Linux violates 235 patents.
2. Introduce OOXML to spike ODF, and stacking ISO
3. Subverting Massachusetts to prevent adoption of ODF there.
4. Novell-Microsoft agreement
5. Preventing alternative desktop search engines.
6. Introducing Silverlight to spike Flash
7. Introducing XPS to spike PDF
8. Refusing to open APIs and protocols despite EU decision.
9. Breaking all of their own "12 tenets' before they even got started.

There's more, but that's a good start.

Re:Oddly enough...

[rtb61]

OK. Lets add blatant lying about xbox fault rates, and defective design in order to extend their monopoly. Then just a few weeks ago paying off one of the studios to drop blu-ray. Then there are all the WGA lies about it working in the face of continual failures. Then the advertising about performance and stability of vista just a few weeks before they supply a performance and stability service pack. Add to that cheating on their taxes by off shoring patent royalties. Lets see, there are the crazy claims that M$ can use GPLv3 code with out being bound by GPLv3. Also there was the mother of all adware patents that uses "context data" from your hard drive to show you advertisements and "apportion and credit advertising revenue" to ad suppliers in real time. There was also that whole blatant blue jay patent theft thing.

Yeah, I know that's not a full year, in fact I got sick of searching /. just back to july, if you want to find the rest of the disgusting B$ behaviour coming out of redmond for the nine months prior to that look for yourself ;).