Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft Faces Two New Lawsuits Over Aggressive Windows 10 Upgrade Tactics

Posted by msmash on from the growing-pain dept.

Microsoft is facing two more lawsuits over its Windows 10 upgrade tactics. The first lawsuit comes from U.S. District Court in Florida, where the company has been accused of violating "laws governing unsolicited electronic advertisements" The suit, PCWorld reports, says Microsoft's tactics are against the FTC's rules on deceptive and unfair practices. The second lawsuit was filed last month in Haifa, Israel alleging that Microsoft installed Windows 10 on users' computer without their consent. It's similar to another recent lawsuit that was filed against Microsoft in which the Redmond company had to pay a sum of $10,000. The company, however, believes that these new lawsuits won't succeed. In a statement to The Seattle Times, the company said:We believe the plaintiffs' claims are without merit and we are confident we'll be successful in court.

24 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Fuck MS by sexconker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Fuck MS. Mod +5 Insightful because you know it's true and no more needs to be said on the matter.

    1. Re:Fuck MS by npslider · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How much does a judge cost these days?

    2. Re:Fuck MS by fustakrakich · · Score: 2

      For Microsoft and equivalent, mere pennies.. And even that is figured into the cost of their products and services. So, in effect, they are free, as in beer.

      For the rest of us, *if you have to ask*, you know the rest... We can't even buy a cop.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    3. Re:Fuck MS by Darinbob · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Doesn't matter. Remember that they lost big in the EU, only got a slap on the wrist for it, and delayed complying with the court orders for so long that the punishment was moot. Microsoft laughs at your puny courts.

    4. Re:Fuck MS by whoever57 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Don't forget that Microsoft also "accidentally" forgot to comply with a judgement for about a year.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  2. And the reason being... by npslider · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "We believe the plaintiffs' claims are without merit and we are confident we'll be successful in court."

    Primarily due to the courts computers running Windows...

    1. Re:And the reason being... by ZipK · · Score: 2

      Primarily due to the courts computers running Windows...

      And court records not being available during mandatory, unsolicited OS updates.

    2. Re:And the reason being... by npslider · · Score: 4, Funny

      From Microsoft Imperial HQ:

      If you rule in our favor... it goes from 99% to finished.

      If you do not... that remaining 1% may take a looooooong time!

  3. Why do they even seek comment? by Lendrick · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I mean, what's MS going to say? 'We believe this case has a lot of merit and we're probably going to lose'?

    1. Re:Why do they even seek comment? by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      Corporations also don't keep around attorneys who point out that company policies are clearly illegal and may lead to future lawsuits or criminal actions. Lawyers are there to say YES when asked to do so.

    2. Re:Why do they even seek comment? by macs4all · · Score: 2

      Agreed. What company will keep an attorney that says "Our client screwed up, and we are trying to bail them out, and we're not optimistic about their chances."

      In fact, that would be legal malpractice, as a violation of the Duty to Zealously Defend the Client.

    3. Re:Why do they even seek comment? by vux984 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Why do they even seek comment?

      The reason is "journalistic integrity",

      Yes, we all know that the MS mouthpiece is going to respond with some useless boilerplate, but its Journalism 101 to seek comments and responses to all parties when writing stories about them.

      It provides for fairness, letting the company have its say (even if it is boilerplat); and also supports journalism principles for verification and accuracy. For example, Microsoft could have responded ...'No, your facts are wrong. They haven't actually served us with any lawsuit yet."... or "No. They have already settled out of court; and are under a non-disclosure about the terms." or disputed/corrected any number of other facts or details about the case, that they wish.

      If the journalist has all the facts 100% right, and the company really has no positive spin for it, then yeah, you'll get a boilerplate... "we beleive this case has no merit."

      But its a good sign that the journal article reached out for a comment, and even better that they got one and printed it.

    4. Re:Why do they even seek comment? by dpidcoe · · Score: 2

      And when the company decides the profit is greater than the cost of the lawsuit? Is the corporate attorney going to stand up and say "the case has merit and my company did the wrong thing, it's just that we made a bunch of money from it so we don't care"? I don't know about you, but I'd be willing to bet that they're *still* going to stand up there and say the case has no merit, despite have predicted the lawsuits well before the decision was made to proceed anyway.

  4. Class-Action? by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There's gotta be a lot of others impacted. A Yuuuuge class-action lawsuit may be in order. A law firm could advertise, asking about those affected, and collect the claims together.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:Class-Action? by GreatOldOne · · Score: 2

      Wouldn't it be funny to see a court order as part of the damages that Micro$oft must support Windows 7 in perpetuity?

    2. Re:Class-Action? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Having them support it in perpetuity would be unfair.

      What would be fair is having them support Windows 7 until its copyright expires.

    3. Re:Class-Action? by Stan92057 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Ive thought about that a lot and i really believe MS should support all their OS...security wise .Allowing hundreds of millions of PCs to go un patched security wise is a national security issue..Win 7 been out for how long and still every month their is a new security patch and just because its old and they are tired of supporting it..i say too bad, they released a product that was a security nightmare,and continues to be one. Plus this PC i own can run win 7 forever really. if they don't want to then they should be forced to open the code so it can be fixed. that's my opinion anyways

      --
      Jack of all trades,master of none
    4. Re:Class-Action? by Zocalo · · Score: 2

      A law firm could advertise, asking about those affected, and collect the claims together.

      Bonus points if they can get the advert posted to the Windows 10 start menu...

      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    5. Re:Class-Action? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What would be really fair is forcing them to open source XP. A user supported fully 64 bit XP (that was able to run all 32 bit programs and drivers) would wipe the floor with anything they've produced since.

      As a bonus all the "no longer supported but perfectly working hardware" could still be run too. Windows 7 and beyond shit on a lot of perfectly good, expensive, hardware.

      Me, I'm hoping for ReactOS to get to the point it can run te drivers for some of my older hardware. That would be the ideal solution to the Microsoft problrem.

  5. MS keeps breaking the machines of elderly people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    On Monday I had to repair yet another Win7 computer, where Win10 installation had started without user consent and had broken the system. In practice the Win10 installer had created a new user (without real name, just a random UUID) and removed the ownership and write permissions from the computer owner users home directory tree. Unsurprisingly all the applications, including Windows explorer failed to function properly. It seems that current applications just ignore any file IO errors without any indication or hint to user what operation did not work.

  6. Re:I miss baghdad bob memes by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Funny

    Baghdad Bob + Microsoft Bob:

    "It looks like you're trying to sue us. The lawsuit has no merit. But, you want help bribing a judge for us, in case. Yes, you do. Trust me; it's in your family's best interest..."

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  7. Pointless by frovingslosh · · Score: 2

    This is pointless. Microsoft already owns enough lawmakers and judges so that they can do whatever they want. As to any class action joke, Microsoft would end up giving the legal firm a token few million dollars and the members of the class would end up with coupons for "free" upgrades to Windows 10.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  8. Re:I miss baghdad bob memes by npslider · · Score: 3, Funny

    I wanted to type that, but my Microsoft Digital Assistant advised against it, even threatened to encrypt my files if I misspoke.

    What I wanted to say was tha^^^ NO CARRIER

  9. Re:Just the beginning by imidan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I own three computers running Windows 7 at the moment. For my primary desktop, I bought a new hard drive and installed Windows 10 on it to check it out. I didn't hate it, but I was left asking why I would bother upgrading when there is no killer feature of Windows 10 that seems to make it better than 7? Then I got busy, and I put the Windows 7 drive back in because I needed to get stuff done and not waste time configuring a new OS. I've been thinking of switching back recently, but then all this news comes out about not being able to disable Cortana or lock screens or apps... They almost had me, but now I'm going to continue putting it off.