[NCLUG] Public comments on Microsoft Anti-Trust Case Settlement requested

J. Paul Reed preed at sigkill.com
Mon Jan 14 12:40:57 MST 2002


On Fri, 11 Jan 2002, Eric Brunson wrote:

> Last I heard they were going to donate intel hardware and "software
> licenses valued at <insert absurdly large dollar amount here>" to
> under-privileged schools to further cement their strangle-hold on the OS
> market.

Immaterial from the comments made about this settlement (which can be
described, in my opinion, in one word: total_crap... the settlement, not
the comments), that isn't the settlement they're talking about.

The money-for-schools-to-buy-computers settlement only applies to the
hordes of pending civil suits against Microsoft now that it's been
established that they're a monopoly; everyone and their brother (including
me) would love to sue Microsoft now, and they're whining that that would be
too hard and take too long and too much money, so they want to be all nice
and give money and really expensive software to schools.

It has nothing to do with settlement of the anti-trust case, which is the
settlement they're asking for public comment on.

*That* settlement is even worse if you can read between the lines... in
many ways, it actually protects Microsoft's monopoly.  It's at
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f9400/9495.htm and has nothing to do with
schools.

As for the school hardware/software buyout, discussion on it is relatively
moot now:

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20020111/tc/microsoft_privatesuits_dc_2.html

Later,
Paul
    ------------------------------------------------------------------
    J. Paul Reed            preed at sigkill.com || web.sigkill.com/preed
    What's the point in being nuts if you can't have a little fun?
                                   -- John Nash, Jr., A Beautiful Mind




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